Zombies' Superstar Saga
by Game2002
Summary: Franchouchou ends up in a bizarre world after going through a strange pipe and get busted as zombies right from the start. Will the inhabitants here accept them for what they are? And can they return to their own world?
1. A Haunted Start

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 _A Game2002 Production_

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The atmosphere of the night and the forest was creepy as Junko and Yuugiri made their way through the latter. Both zombies were currently dressed in their casual clothing that they usually wore when practicing indoors.

Looking around in fright as she held close to Yuugiri, who didn't seem faze by the setting at all, Junko said over and over, "Please don't let anything scary show up... Please don't let anything scary show up...!"

"Relax, Lady Junko," Yuugiri told her. "I'm sure if something does show up, it probably wouldn't have any interest in attacking corpses like us."

"I'm not sure if they'll even see us as corpses, considering that we are walking and all..." replied Junko. "We still don't know where we are yet... or where the others are..."

It was then they both noticed light coming from the distance. Intrigued, they decided to head over there, hoping that whatever it was, it would be of help to them.

Arriving at the source of the light, they saw that it was a small shack that had light coming from the window. "A house?" said Yuugiri curiously.

"I wonder who lives there," wondered Junko.

The two zombies approached the house carefully in order to not disturb whoever was in there, lest they get freaked out by their presence, and looked into the window. While they didn't see anyone, they saw various complicated machinery and a couple of computers.

"What are those contraptions?" wondered Yuugiri.

"I don't know... Other than those computers, I've never seen anything like those in my life... New inventions that appeared after my death?" wondered Junko.

Just as they were wondering who would live in a place like this, a flashlight was suddenly shined onto them from behind, shocking them and making them turn around. They saw standing before them a bespectacled, elderly man wearing a lab coat. "Why hello there, ladies!" he said to them in a friendly tone. "I didn't expect to see anyone else out here!"

"Oh no... Oh no...! He saw us...! What are we going to do...?!" Junko said in her head while trembling in fright nonstop.

Yuugiri was worried as well that someone saw them without their makeups, but she kept a calm composure, trying her best not to show any form of fear. In fact, she was ready to use violence if she had to.

The old man adjusted his glasses as he leaned forward to get a better look at the two zombies, which only made them more nervous. "No offense, but you both look like you could use a bit of cleaning," he said to them. "I assume you got yourself dirty while out here?"

Junko and Yuugiri looked at each other, somewhat relieved that this person didn't seem to realize they were zombies. However, what he asked them next made them worried again. "Those are quite some stitches you have on your bodies!" he said while noting Junko's stitches that kept her patched up body together and also the one that went around Yuugiri's neck. "Did you get into serious injuries?"

Junko slowly nodded her head while continuing to tremble in fear. "Ye... Yes... We got into... serious injuries... but we're much better now...!" She was hoping that she could continue to fool this person.

"Well, at least you look alive and well," said the old man, and then he took out a square-shaped device that had a radar on it. "For some reason, my radar isn't picking you up... at least as living beings."

Junko gasped upon hearing this, while Yuugiri had a confused look, as she didn't know what a radar was.

"This ghost radar is used for detecting ghosts and any creature that are not considered living things, though that doesn't necessary mean they're non-living objects, just beings that are considered undeads," explained the man while looking at the radar. "Because you know, ghosts are undeads. Funny how it's registering you two as ghosts, or undead beings..."

"Oh no...! We're done for!" Junko said with even more fear as she grabbed onto Yuugiri, who told her to keep calm and that everything would be all right.

Just as the old man was wondering about this, there was suddenly a sound coming from inside the shack. He immediately rushed inside it and headed for one of the computers.

Seeing that he was gone for the meantime, Junko and Yuugiri thought about leaving. They looked into the window first and saw the old man speaking to someone through the computer, and they could hear whoever was in the computer spouting about how things were more dangerous than he thought.

Thinking that this didn't have anything to do with them, the zombies decided to bail before the old man returned to them, but what they heard next made them stop in their tracks. The person in the computer talked about being accompanied by a mummy girl and a crazy woman with pale skin who looks like a zombie.

Hearing this, Junko and Yuugiri were surprised. While they didn't know who the mummy girl was, hearing about a crazy woman who looks like a zombie was more than enough to tell them who it was. "Tae?!" said Junko loudly.

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ZOMBIE LAND SAGA

X

MARIO

 **ZOMBIES' SUPERSTAR SAGA**

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 **Chapter 1  
A Haunted Start**

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Several hours earlier...

Like when they always had a meeting, Franchouchou were all seated on their chairs located in their mansion's "dungeon," and Kotaro was standing before them, in front of a blackboard. With his hands on his hips, he said to them, "Special announcement, zombies, so get your ears up and listening! A few weeks from now, there will be an idol event in Tokyo, and I'm trying to get you lot into it!"

The idols were surprised to hear this. "Tokyo? Why there all of a sudden?" asked Ai.

"Because we need to do more than just attracting the attention of people in Saga," replied Kotaro. "We also need to attract the attention of the rest of the country as well, and what better place to go to than the capital of Japan?"

"Sounds like a good idea!" agreed Sakura with a nod.

"However, registration requires someone to be there in person," continued Kotaro. "Therefore, I will be going there to reserve a spot for you lot!"

"So we're going to Tokyo?" asked Lily.

"Nope, I'm going alone for now!" Kotaro said to him. "There's no reason for you bunch to tag along at the moment. You will only be going there once I've managed to earn you a spot!"

"Why aren't you taking us along?" asked Junko.

Looking at her, he replied, "Think of the fee! Getting there by plane and back ain't cheap! I can't even be sure if I can reserve a spot for you zombies yet, so in order to save up on money, I'll be going there alone and back, and when it's decided that you will perform in Tokyo, I will take you along! Therefore, in the meantime, you bunch get to practice with your latest dance moves! In case we can't perform in Tokyo, we will at least perform here in Saga, so get working, ya rotten bunch!"

"Yeah, yeah... You didn't have to throw in rotten at the end, did you?" said Saki, not looking too pleased.

"I'll be gone for a few days, and even after I'm done with my business there, I will take some time to go on a tour in Tokyo, something you lot don't have the privilege of doing!" said Kotaro in a mocking manner. He then went up to an annoyed Saki and poked his face close to hers. "Feels bad, eh? You zombies are cooped up here I enjoy my time out there! If I'm feeling generous, I might be some cheap souvenirs for you! Though I can't decide what sort of souvenir is fitting for a bunch of rotten corpse like you! Hohoho!"

Frustrated, Saki punched the producer hard in the guts, causing him to fall back and curl up in pain with his hands on the spot that was hit. Standing up, Saki shouted at him, "You deserve that for constantly badmouthing us!"

"Perhaps..." said the producer in pain.

"Not perhaps! You definitely do!" said Saki angrily. Ai and Yuugiri both nodded in agreement.

"In any case..." said Kotaro as he stood back up after getting over the pain. "While I'm gone, make sure you don't leave the mansion, but if you do have to leave for whatever reason, even though I can't think of any, then make sure to apply your makeups first. You don't want people seeing you as zombies and blowing you to bits, don't you?"

"So... when are you leaving?" Sakura asked him while raising her arm.

Kotaro looked at his watch and then said, "Today and now! All right! I'm packing my bags and heading for the airport! Good luck to me, ya rotten bunch!" He then zoomed out of the room at a fast speed.

The zombies stared at the door for a few seconds, and then Saki asked, "Anyone still can't get used to his shenanigans?" All the others raised their hands, except for the ever mindless Tae, but when she saw them doing this, she raised her hand as well, though simply because to mimic them.

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That night, the zombies, while dressed in their indoor casual clothing, were practicing their dance moves to the new song they came up with.

After almost an hour of practicing, they came to a stop to catch their breaths. "All right, I think that's enough for today," said Ai while breathing heavily. "I think we did a great job! Don't you think so?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah! I can't to perform it in the public!"

"Let's hope Kotaro is able to reserve us a spot in the concert in Tokyo, then!" said Junko.

"Or we can just perform here in Saga if he can't," said Saki. "Not like there's anything wrong with that!"

Ai then went over to the laptop that played the song they were dancing to and saved the music file into a USB drive before removing the latter and putting it away in her pocket.

As they were leaving the room, Saki said, "I'm thinking... Since shades is gone, why don't we use this opportunity to... use the bath?"

The other zombies perked up their heads when they heard this. "But Tatsumi told us not to use the bathroom...!" Junko reminded her.

"He's not home, so who's gonna stop us?" said Saki. "Don't you want to be able to take a proper bath for once? Don't tell me you enjoy dowsing yourself out in the yard with a hose instead!"

Ai sniffed herself and then said, "So long as we don't leave behind evidences, I'm sure it's all right."

"Wouldn't he notice the quantity of the soaps decreasing?" asked a worried Sakura.

"So what if he gets mad at us? What's the worse he can do to us? I'd like to see him try his worst!" said Saki, not looking scared at all.

"Well, he did suggest cutting our hairs at one point, and that's probably because our hair won't grow back due to us being dead..." said Sakura.

Hearing this, Lily became shocked and placed his hands over his head. "Lily doesn't want to lose her cute hairstyle!"

"Don't worry, shrimpy! He's not touching any of our hairs!" Saki said to him with confidence. "All right! Let's charge for the bathroom and clean ourselves properly for the first time!"

As they were heading down the hall, they noticed Romera barking at a drawer. Curious, the zombies went up to him, and Sakura asked the zombie dog, "Romero, what's wrong?"

The dog kept on barking at the drawer. To be precise, underneath the drawer. Thinking that there was something underneath it, Sakura ducked down to look inside. All of sudden, a mouse charged out from underneath the drawer and latched onto her face. She screamed as she shot back up and knocked the mouse off her face, and the mouse flew onto Junko's leg and began clawing her.

Junko shrieked loudly as she kicked her leg against the air fast, causing the mouse to fly away and falling back onto the floor. Seeing the mouth, Tae began barking like a dog as she chased after it, and Romero did the same. The two zombies knocked down several things as they chased the mouse all over the place, while the others panicked and wondered what to do.

"Quick! Open the door and let the mouse out!" suggested Ai.

Acting fast, Saki ran to the front door and swung it open before telling those two to chase the mouse outside. When the mouse saw that there was a way out, it ran for the exit. Tae and Romero followed the mouse all the way out of the house. The mouse slipped through the gate, and both Tae and Romero performed an amazing leap over the gate to continue chasing the mouse down the path.

The zombies ran up to the front door, and Saki shouted, "Yeah, that's it, Tae! Go get that mouse!"

"Wow! They really chased that mouse out of the house and even followed it all the way!" said Lily.

"Yeah! They sure are dedicated, right?" said Sakura with a smile.

A few seconds later, their smiles disappeared, and after a couple more seconds, looks of shock appeared on their faces. "TAE! ROMERO!" they shouted. Without a second thought, all six zombies rushed out of the gate and ran in the direction Tae and Romero headed.

"We have to get them back before anyone sees them!" said Ai in panic.

"We didn't put on our makeups!" Sakura brought up.

"We don't have time for that!" Saki told her. "Plus, it's nighttime, so there shouldn't be anyone..." All of sudden, light was shined onto them.

They looked and saw that it was the policeman who kept on running into them in the past. Looks of shock appeared on their faces as the policeman cried, "Zombies again! And there's six of them!"

Before he could do anything else, Saki rushed up to him and kneed him in the guts before karate chopping him in the back of his neck to knock him out. The other zombies were shocked by her actions, and Sakura asked, "What are you doing, Saki?!"

"You should be thanking me!" Saki said to her. "Anyway, let's go!" The zombies then continued going after Tae and Romero. Junko said sorry to the unconscious policeman as she ran past him.

The group of six followed the sound of barking down the path until they came to manhole with its lid open. Listening closely, they could hear sound coming from down below. "Did they... go down there...?" asked Sakura.

"Sounds like it," said Saki. "C'mon! Let's go!"

"Ugh... Lily doesn't want to go into the sewer..." said Lily.

Looking at him, Saki asked, "Would you rather stay here and got spotted by passersby? What choice do we have?"

"Some of us can always go back to the mansion first," replied Lily.

"Is someone there?" asked a voice. Hearing this, the zombies hurriedly jumped down the manhole without a second thought. Another police officer showed up shortly afterwards and shined his flashlight at the manhole. "Who didn't cover this up? It's dangerous!"

Down in the sewer, the zombies watched as the policeman covered up the manhole with its lid, which was placed at the side. "Well, let's move forward," suggested Saki as she took the lead.

Fortunately for them, there wasn't much water down below, so they were mostly walking on dry ground. This didn't make the place any cleaner, though. "Ugh... I can't believe we're down in a place like this..." said Ai in disgust while pinching her nose shut.

"Let's find Lady Tae and Romero as soon as possible and then get out of here," said Yuugiri. "I have admit that this is not an ideal place for me to be..."

Sakura called out loud, "Tae! Romero! Where are you? Please respond!" Not too long after she called out, they all heard Tae's voice crying from the distance and echoing.

"They must be over there!" said Saki, pointing up ahead. The zombies headed straight ahead and turned around a corner. After a bit more running, they finally found Tae and Romero at a dead end.

"Tae! Romero!" Sakura called out to them in concern as she ran up to them. "Found you at last! How can you run out of the house like this? Bad girl! Bad dog!"

Romero had a guilty look on his face as he whimpered, though Tae simply stared at her and made no noise.

"Good thing nothing turned out bad," said Ai. "C'mon, let's get out of here now. I can't stand being in this sewer any longer..."

As they were getting ready to leave, Lily noticed something and told the others about it. They looked at what he was pointing at: several wooden boards blocking an entrance into a passage, and there was light coming out from behind them.

"Huh? Why is there light coming from in there?" wondered Junko.

"Is this not normal?" asked Yuugiri. The others shook their heads.

"Want to see what's in there?" suggested Saki. Without waiting for replies, she went up to the wooden boards and began yanking them off. After becoming a zombie, she realized that her strength was slightly stronger than when she was human. While not strong enough to, like, lift a car, she could at least lift things that usually requires two or three people to lift.

After removing all the wooden boards, the zombies were greeted with the sight of a golden pipe sticking out of the wall in there, and rainbow-colored light was pouring out of its entrance, which was big enough to fit a person.

"What... What is that?" asked Sakura in surprise.

"It's so beautiful!" commented Junko as she looked at the multicolored light.

"Whoa... Never seen anything like this before!" said Saki. She began inching towards the pipe, while the others told her to be careful. She slowly reached her hand into the pipe. "I wonder what's in there?"

"Be careful... It may be dangerous..." Ai warned her.

Despite Ai's warning, Saki continued to move closer to the pipe until she was standing within it. Turning to the others, she said with a smile, "See? Nothing at all! C'mon! Let's go in there and see what's on the other side!"

"Are you sure it's safe...?" asked a worried Sakura.

"What's the worst that can happen? Don't be such a chicken!" Saki told her, and then she turned to go deeper into the pipe. The others looked at each other and shrugged before joining her in the pipe.

When they were inside the pipe, they were greeted with the extraordinary sight of a scenery made of colorful light. It was completely out of this world. They didn't look like they were inside a pipe any longer, though their surroundings were still narrow, and they were moving in a single line due to the lack of space. "Wow! It's so beautiful!" commented Lily.

"Just what is this place?!" asked a surprised Ai.

"I don't know, but I'm liking what I saw!" said Saki. "Can't wait to see what's on the... WAAAA!" Saki suddenly stepped on a slippery slope and slid down at a fast speed.

"SAKI!" gasped Sakura as she leaned down the slope.

"What happened?!" Ai asked her.

"Saki slid down!" replied Sakura. Without a second thought, the red-haired zombie tossed herself forward, sliding down the slope, screaming as she did.

The other zombies were shocked by her action. Not knowing what else to do, they all decided to follow suit and thus went down the slope one by one.

The zombies screamed loudly as they found themselves sliding down the one-way path at a fast speed. They encountered several turns slopes that didn't slow them down one bit. All the while, the rainbow scenery around them didn't change.

Sakura could see Saki a bit of a distance before her, and she tried to move forward and reach out to her. Behind Sakura, Ai could see the red-haired zombie and struggle to catch up with her. Sakura suddenly made a turn to the side, while Ai found herself moving straight ahead as if there was a fork in the road and they went different directions.

Each of the zombies screamed as they began to move in separate directions in pairs. Sakura and Saki went down one path, Junko and Yuugiri traveled down another, Ai and Tae went together, while Lily and Romero traveled together. The zombies kept on screaming as they traveled down their respective pathways at a fast speed, never once slowing down.

"WHEN IS THIS GOING TO STOP?!" screamed Ai. Behind her, Tae was sliding on her front while making her usual zombie-like cry.

Ai continued to scream as she traveled at a fast speed. Suddenly, she found herself being shot upwards, and before she knew it, the scenery around her was no longer rainbow-colored, but the night sky. She could even see the moon in the distance.

Both Ai and Tae found themselves up in the air and then falling back down, and they hit solid ground, with the former landing on the latter. "Phew... Finally..." said Ai as she stood up from Tae. Due to being zombies, they didn't feel pain at all from the fall. "What in the world was that...?"

She looked around to find herself standing in what appeared to be a yard, as there was a large mansion before her. At first, she thought it was their mansion, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't the same one. She noticed that there were lots of trees around them, thus making it look like they were in a forest.

"What is this place...?" she wondered. She also looked for the pipe they came out from, but for some reason, it was nowhere to be seen. "Where's that pipe...? Oh no... This better not mean we can't go back... At least I should find out what this place is first... and also where the others went..."

She looked at the mansion and decided to check it out first. She told Tae to tag along and not walk off on her own, and the mindless zombie followed her as the latter went inside the mansion through its backdoor.

The door was unlocked, and when Ai looked inside, there was no light at all. In fact, the interior was dirty and broken, as if there was nobody living here. She thought that this was for the best, as she didn't want anyone to see a pair of zombies showing up in their house uninvited. Just in case, she motioned for Tae to be quiet, even though she wasn't sure if the latter would obey her.

The two quietly made their way through the dark interior of the mansion, all the while being aware of their surroundings. "What is this place...?" Ai wondered as she looked around. The mansion, while old, appeared to be a rich and luxurious one if the place was clean. Broken pieces of furniture were all over the place, and there were also portraits depicting people she was unfamiliar with. She was sure that some of the people don't actually look like humans.

When those two stepped out into a hallway, they noticed yellow light coming from the corner on the far end of the place. Curious but also cautious, Ai got closer to the light, while Tae followed her. The source of the light then appeared from around the corner, revealing itself to be a...

"Ghost?!" said Ai in shock upon seeing that a golden ghost with large yellow eyes had showed up. Tae simply stared at said ghost with a mindless expression.

Her legs wobbling in terror, Ai took steps back slowly as the ghost slowly floated in her direction while constantly staring at her with a large smile on its face, and a mischievous one at that. As Ai continued to glue her eyes to the ghost in shock, she felt Tae shaking her by the shoulder as if trying to tell her something. Ai looked at Tae and noticed her looking in the other direction, and when the former looked there, she was horrified to see a second ghost there.

The second ghost suddenly lunged forward and yelled into both their faces. Ai screamed in terror before grabbing Tae by the collar and rushing past the first ghost encountered at a fast speed. Both the ghosts laughed hysterically at her shocked response before deciding to go after her.

Ai ran for her life, not bothering to look back at all. She kept on running until she entered another room and shut the door tightly. She even grabbed a nearby table and placed it in front of the door before moving all the way to the back of the room with Tae, who wasn't conveying any form of expression at all, like always. "Were... Were those ghosts...?!" the bandaged zombie asked no one in particular. "How...? How is that possible?! They shouldn't exist!" Somehow, this was an ironic question to ask considering what she is...

Just when Ai thought she was safe, she freaked out again when both those ghosts phased right through the door to enter the room. The ghosts laughed mischievously as they floated closer and closer to the two zombies. "No! Stay back! Stay back!" Ai pleaded them while pushing herself against the wall behind herself as much as possible. However, the ghosts only came closer and closer.

When Tae noticed how horrified Ai was and even on the verge of tears, her instinct of protecting someone close to her kicked in. A look of anger appeared on the zombie's face as she growled like a beast at the ghosts, though they didn't show signs of fear at all and simply laughed at her.

Suddenly, the door flung open, pushing away the table that was blocking it, and everyone turned to look there to see a man carrying something on his back standing there. Due to the lack of light, Ai couldn't make out what he looks like. The two ghosts turned to the newcomer and decided to go after him instead.

Out of nowhere, the man released bright light that stunned both the ghosts, and then he used what appeared to be a vacuum cleaner to began sucking in one of the ghosts.

The ghost cried in terror as he tried to escape the sucking force, but it was ultimately no match for the vacuum cleaner and thus got sucked into it.

The other ghost was horrified at what happened to his companion, so he bailed. The man chased him, and right before the ghost could phase out of the room, he managed to catch him by his "tail" with the vacuum cleaner's suction power. The ghost cried in terror as he struggled to escape, only to get sucked inside it like his companion in the end.

Ai was breathing heavily as she tried to comprehend what on earth happened just now. "Who... Who is that guy...?" she wondered.

The man then turned to face her and Tae before turning on a flashlight to shine onto them. "You're safe now!" he said to them.

Ai was relieved to be saved by this man at first, only to immediately remember that she was a zombie and would most definitely terrify whoever this person was. When the flashlight was shined onto her shocked expression, she could see that the person standing before her was a male adult with a moustache, and his attire consisted of green and blue overalls and a green hat with a capital L printed on it.

Judging from the man's expression, Ai could tell that he was stunned by her and Tae's unnatural skin colors. Both sides stared at each other in silence for several seconds, and then Tae broke the silence by suddenly lunging at the man and grabbing onto his shoulders to "roar" into his face. "AAAAAAHHHHH! WHAT ARE YOU?!" he cried in terror.

"TAE! DON'T ATTACK HIM!" Ai cried out to the mindless zombie as she hurriedly grabbed her from behind in an attempt to pull her away. The man continued to scream as he struggled to push Tae away. They were all interrupted when something in the room moved and made a loud thud. Everyone turned to the source of the sound and saw a piano that was in the room all along, except it was closer to them than before.

The top of the piano suddenly opened, revealing a sharp set of teeth, and let out a cry that sounded like someone pounded all its keys at once. Both Ai and the man in green screamed at the top of their voices. The bizarre piano lunged forward in attempt to bite them with its teeth, but they avoided it and rushed out of the room. Using its wooden legs, the piano gave chase out of the room and ran after them at a relatively fast speed, though they were faster.

"HOW IS THAT PIANO ALIVE?!" asked Ai as she ran for her life next to the man, all the while with one arm wrapped around Tae's body to carry her along.

"IT'S DEFINITELY DA WORK OF A POSSESSA!" replied the man.

"A what?!"

"Possessa! Ghosts that-a possess various objects to give life to them!" explained the man.

"How can something like that even exist?!" asked Ai.

"You've seen eet with your own eyes now, didn't you?!" the man said to her.

The group of three ran through the place with the monstrous piano chasing them nonstop. They eventually ran up a staircase, hoping that the piano wouldn't be able to climb it. However, when they looked down, they were shocked to see that it could climb the stairs with no issues, so they ran again.

After rushing down another hallway, they entered one of the doors there and hid behind a sofa in there. They were thinking that due to the small size of the door and the large size of the piano, the latter shouldn't be able to come in.

"We should be safe here..." said Ai.

"I hope..." said the man. He and Ai then looked at each other, and then Tae joined in staring at him afterwards. Moving back from them in fright, the man asked them while pointing his vacuum cleaner at them, "Who are you two?! What-a even are you two?! Whose side are you on?!"

"I can at least tell you I'm not on the same side as whatever the creeps are that live here!" Ai told him.

"Will you harm me?" asked the man.

Ai thought for a while and then said, "I won't... and I'll make sure she won't as well..." She pointed at Tae when she said the last part.

"Just don't-a make things any harda for me! Eet wuz bad-a enough E. Gadd dragged me into theez just to find his lost assistants!" said the man before whipping out a foldable handheld device with two screens. "Speaking of which, I betta contact him about-a theez!

After inputting certain commands onto the device, a picture of a bespectacled old man appeared on the top screen. "Luigi!" the old man said to him. "How's it going over there?"

"Professa! I ran into a Possessa, and eet seems to be more dangerous than ones I've encountered before!" the man referred to as Luigi told him. "It possessed a piano and somehow made eet grow teeth and eez now coming after me! To make things even complicated, there's theez weird bandaged girl and a crazy woman with odd skin color who looks almost like a zombie here with me! Da latter even attacked me at first!"

"Huh? What did you say about the latter?" asked the old man.

"I said a mummy girl and a zombie-like lady are with me!" repeated Luigi.

"Mummy?" said Ai curiously. She then looked at her bandaged arms and thought about what he said for a few seconds before finally understanding what he meant. "Huh, never thought of myself as one before..."

Suddenly, Junko and Yuugi appeared on the screen next to the old man. "Tae? Is that you over there?" asked Junko. Luigi was, needless to say, surprised by the appearance of two girls with pale skin showing up.

Hearing that voice and recognizing it, Ai rushed over to Luigi to look at the device. "Junko! Yuugiri!" she said in surprise.

"Ai! It's you! I'm so glad you're all right!" said Junko happily.

"Tae is with me and fine as well," Ai told her.

"Whoa there, girls! You know each other?" the old man asked the two zombies with him.

Suddenly, their reunion was interrupted by the wall being crashed through. The three present in the room looked up to see that the living piano had crashed right through the wall. "IT'S HERE!" screamed Luigi.

"Calm down, Luigi! Concentrate on finding a way to hurt it, and the Possessor will come out, then you suck it in with your Poltergust 5000!" the old man told him. "You've done something like this before! I know you can do it again!"

"Easier said than done!" said Luigi while looking around in panic for anything he could use against the piano.

Knowing that they were behind the sofa, the piano lunged in that direction and destroyed it with its weight, but all three of them got out of the way in time. Luigi and Ai backed up against a wall in fright, but Tae was down on all fours while growling at the piano. "What's your friend-a doing?!" Luigi asked Ai.

Before Ai could give him a reply, Tae let out cry as she pounced at the piano. Jumping into its "mouth," she began ripping out the strings in there and flinging them all over the place. The piano evidently felt pain from this, as it thrashed around in an attempt to shake her off, and it also slammed down its lid onto her over and over. Luigi and Ai were in awe at what was happening.

Tae then grabbed the lid when it came down again and then, with all her strength, ripped it off from the rest of the body. She then flung it in Ai and Luigi's direction without thinking much. Ai screamed as she hurriedly got out of the way, but Luigi didn't run and ended up getting smacked in the entire body by the lid and got pressed against the wall. The lid fell over, revealing a knocked out Luigi.

With the piano badly ruined, a white ghost with a grumpy face, the Possessor, emerged from its wreckage and let out a cry of frustration as it glared at Tae, who glared back. Tae let out an angry cry as she leaped at the ghost, swinging her hand at it. However, her hand passed through the Possessor as if the latter was thin air, and he laughed in response.

The ghost then got onto Tae's back and grabbed her hair, pulling them hard. The zombie cried in anger while thrashing around to get him off, but when her hands kept on passing through the ghost, even though the latter could touch her.

Ai continued to sit against the wall, watching the two duel in shock. Realizing that she had to help Tae, since the latter was clearly helpless against the Possessor, Ai turned to the unconscious Luigi and tried to wake him up. Luigi didn't get up, and when Ai looked at the vacuum cleaner he was carrying and remembered what it did, she picked him up his arm and carried him closer to Tae and the ghost.

Using her other arm, Ai pointed the vacuum cleaner at the ghost and shouted at it, "Hey you! Eat this!" She then turned on the vacuum cleaner, and the Possessor cried in terror as he began getting sucked in. The ghost tried his best to escape, but Ai turned the suction power to the max while closing in on him. Eventually, the ghost was sucked into the vacuum cleaner, and then she turned it off and sighed in relief.

"Phew... That should do the trick..." she said. She then looked at Tae, who was scratching her head while looking around in confusion as if searching for the ghost. "I've dealt with it, Tae. It's all right now."

It was then Luigi woke up, and after removing himself from Ai, he looked around and asked, "Where's da ghost?"

"I took care of it using your... vacuum cleaner," Ai told him.

"Oh, you did?" said Luigi as he looked at the device he was carrying. "Thanks! Would be troublesome eef that-a ghost ran off..."

Just then, they heard the sound of something creaking and were surprised. Turning to the side, they saw a wardrobe door slowly opening, and behind it were two midgets wearing hats that resembled mushroom caps. They had looks of fear on their faces. "Oh, there you are!" Luigi said to them. "I was looking for you!"

"Thanks for the coming for us, Luigi..." said one of the midgets. "We were so terrified by the ghosts here that we kept on hiding here and hoped that someone would come rescue us..."

"Or we find the chance to escape when there is one..." said the other midget. "We thought that would never come..."

The two midgets stepped out of the wardrobe and approached those three. Looking at Ai and Tae, one of them said to them, "We saw what you did just now. Don't know who you are, but thanks!"

"Uh... You're welcome..." said Ai, looking somewhat nervous and unsure.

Tae, on the other hand, kept on staring at the two midgets, or to be precise, their mushroom "hats." Suddenly, the zombie opened her mouth and lunged at one of them.

* * *

 **BGM: Professor E. Gadd (Luigi's Mansion)**

Ai and Tae were finally reunited with Junko and Yuugiri. The four zombies were currently inside the shack belonging to the old man, whose name they learned was E. Gadd.

Luigi and the two Toad assistants rescued from the mansion had widened eyes as they looked at the four zombie girls standing before them, while E. Gadd had a look of interest.

Ai and Junko both looked nervous and even scared, while Yuugiri had a calm and collected look. Tae was being herself, like always.

The zombies had just explained to the four standing before them what they, and there was quite a bit of silence as both sides stared at each other. Luigi eventually broke the silence. Pointing at them, he asked, "So... you girls are zombies?" The three "intelligent" zombies nodded in response.

E. Gadd rubbed his hands and said in delight, "Hoohoo! What a discovery! I came here looking for ghosts, but I found reanimated corpses instead! I've heard about zombies many times before, but never came across one! I can't believe I'm finally looking at them! What a great day for a scientist like me!"

"Aren't... Aren't you scared of us...?" Junko asked him nervously.

"Well, you aren't attacking us," replied E. Gadd. "I see no reason to be scared if you are showing no signs of danger."

"She attacked us back there!" one of the Toads angrily said while pointing at Tae. When she turned to look at him, he freaked out and hid behind the other Toad, who looked equally scared.

"Sorry about Tae..." Ai apologized to him. "She's the only one among us who is mindless... She probably thought you look like a mushroom and so tried to eat you..."

"That's even scarier!" cried the Toad.

"Mindless?" said E. Gadd curiously.

Ai nodded. "The person who brought us back to life as zombies said that we were originally mindless, wandering around aimlessly and attacking anyone on sight. We eventually regained our consciousness and memories of when we were alive, except for Tae... She never woke up..."

The four "living" folks turned to look at Tae, who was looking all over the place with a tired-looking face while making groaning sounds.

"So... how did this person bring you back to life?" E. Gadd then asked the girls.

Ai shrugged. "No idea... He never told us how he did it... In fact, we know pretty much nothing about him other than his name... He doesn't share any of his personal info with us at all..."

"He's a pretty eccentric fellow if you ask me," said Yuugiri.

"Okay, putting aside that for now... You haven't introduced yourselves to us yet," E. Gadd said to them. "The four of us introduced ourselves to you earlier, so I guess it's only fair you do the same."

The zombies looked at each other and wondered if they should tell them their names. Ai then said to E. Gadd, "Before that, we would like to know where we are."

"You're in Gloomy Woods," E. Gadd told them.

Ai raised her eyebrows in response. "Gloomy Woods? Never heard of it... Which part of Japan is it in?"

Now it was those four's turns to raise their eyebrows. "Japan?" asked Luigi.

"Um... That's the country we're in... You seriously don't know...?" asked Ai.

"We're in the Mushroom Kingdom," one of the Toads told her.

Ai, Junko, and Yuugiri looked at each other in confusion. They had never heard of any place called Mushroom Kingdom, as if those four not hearing of Japan wasn't weird enough. Turning to them, Junko said, "We... We don't know any place called Mushroom Kingdom..."

"And we don't-a know any place called Japan..." said Luigi.

"Then... do you know America, China, England, or... Korea?" Ai asked them, only for them to shake their heads. "Seriously?! You don't know any of those countries?"

"How about this? You ever heard of Sarasaland, Luncheon Kingdom, Dinosaur Land, or Vibe Island?" one of the Toads asked her.

Those three zombies shook their heads in response. They were even more confused than before now. "If I may ask," said Yuugiri. "If you do not know Japan and claim that we are not in it at the moment, then how is it you are speaking Japanese?"

"Japanese? What we're speaking eez da universal language of da world," Luigi told her. "I don't-a think there's a specific term for eet..." What he said only boggled the minds of the zombies even more.

Frustrated by all these weird things she was hearing, Ai said with a raised volume, "Seriously! Stop messing around! You're talking like we're no longer on Earth but instead some alien planet!"

"We are on Earth," E. Gadd told her.

"Then why is it you don't know any of the countries I said and kept on bringing up locations we've never heard of?!" Ai said to him.

"That's what we would like to know!" one of the Toads said to him. "You're not making any sense in anything you're saying!"

E. Gadd raised his hands to silence them. "All right! Don't get into a fight now! Let's talk about this peacefully! First off, girls, how did you end up at this place?"

"We were going after our companion here after she ran out of our mansion," replied Yuugiri while pointing at Tae with her thumb. "We tracked her down into the sewer, and it was there we discovered a pipe with light shining out of it. We were curious about it, so we went inside. We ended up getting separated, and then we ended up in this location."

Now this sounded like something familiar to those four. "That-a sounds a lot like a warp pipe you went through," said Luigi.

"Warp pipe?" said Junko curiously.

"Warp pipes are common methods of transportation here," explained E. Gadd. "We use it to travel from place to place in a short amount of time."

"If you used a warp pipe to come here, then you shouldn't live that far," said one of the Toads. "Warp pipes don't take you to that great of a distance. At most just across an entire area."

"No, there are actually rumors of a special kind of warp pipe that is capable of sending people to completely different realities," said E. Gadd, which raised the interest of the others. "No one has actually seen it before or at least provide solid evidence, but if what you girls said is true, then I believe we may just have proven the existence of this special warp pipe! Can you girls lead the way back to where the pipe originally was?"

"Um... About that... The pipe disappeared after we came out of it..." Junko told him.

"Warp pipes may sometimes sink underground afta someone used eet," said Luigi. Everyone looked at him in response, which made him confused. "What?"

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

No sooner after what Junko said, the entire group headed over to where she and Yuugiri first showed up after emerging from the warp pipe. It was an empty clearing somewhere in the woods, and the two Toads were currently digging the ground, while the others watched them.

After digging for about two meters, they both stopped, and one of them looked up and said, "There's nothing at all! Are we going to keep on digging?"

"I think that's enough," E. Gadd told them. "Considering that this is a warp pipe that connects between realms, I doubt you can simply find it by digging. For all we know, it may no longer exists in this reality."

"Does that mean we can't go back to our own world?!" Junko said in shock.

"That sounds like a problem..." said Yuugiri.

"Don't worry; I'll look into this special warp pipe and find a solution to things!" E. Gadd told her. "There's got to be more info on this warp pipe somewhere!"

"If we can't get back before Kotaro returns, he's going to throw a fit..." said Ai in a worried voice. "I'm still having a hard time buying this different world thing..."

While Luigi helped the Toad back onto the surface, E. Gadd said to the girls, "There are many mysteries to the world. You'll never know what is going to happen or what you will discover. You can't limit your beliefs to only what people say. That is why I became a scientist to learn about the mysteries and wonders of the world! Though admittedly, I'm more interested in subjects related to the paranormal, but anything unknown to me is still interesting and worth looking into!"

"I'm just reminded that-a you haven't told uz your names yet," Luigi said to them zombies after helping the Toads back to the surface.

"Right..." said Ai. "The reason I wanted to clarify where we are first is because... we keep our names a secret in order to avoid people finding out who we are when we were alive..."

"Why's that?" asked E. Gadd.

Ai then explained to them about how Kotaro brought them back to life as zombies in order to form an idol group in hopes of revitalizing people's interest in the Saga prefecture of Japan. She also told them that he disguises them as humans using makeups, as there were fear that people would persecute them if they found out they were zombies.

"The both of us were famous celebrities when we were alive," explained Ai while pointing at herself and Junko. "Therefore, we have the highest chance of being found out, that is why we avoid using our real names and only referred to ourselves using our stage names when out in the public. Anyway, my name's Ai Mizuno."

"I'm Junko Konno," said Junko. "Nice... Nice to meet you all..."

"My name is Yuugiri," said Yuugiri, and then she pointed at Tae with her hand. "And this here is Tae Yamada."

"Well, it's nice to know you girls!" E. Gadd said to them. "Interesting story you have as well!"

"No offense, but what you told us about being idols consisting of zombies... I think it's ridiculous..." said one of the Toads.

"I thought the same at first..." said Ai. "But in the end, things ended up very well. We actually succeeded in becoming popular and getting a large amount of fans."

"I also didn't like this idea at first, but I have to admit... I'm glad about the popularity that we received in the end!" said Junko.

"Even so, we still have to keep our identities as zombies a secret," said Yuugiri.

"So long as nothing goes wrong, that's good for you girls!" said E. Gadd. "By the way, are there any more of you?"

Ai nodded. "There's seven of us, and also a zombie dog. We all got separated after going into the pipe."

"It will definitely be a problem with they run into other people," said Yuugiri.

"Considering that this a warp pipe that we know almost nothing about, I can't say where they are currently," said E. Gadd, rubbing his chin. "We can only hope they're not too far from where we are..."

"I'm sure there will be reports of zombies popping out sooner or later," said one of the Toads. "I can already imagine the headlines and the panic it may cause..." Hearing this didn't make the zombies feel any better.

"What are we going to do in the meantime?" asked a worried Junko.

"I'll definitely look up more on this warp and try to get you all back home," E. Gadd assured her. "In the meantime, I'm afraid you are stuck here. Don't worry; the folks here are friendly and should help you! Assuming you find the right people... Maybe you can go to Mario or even find Princess Peach!"

"Princess?" asked Ai, sounding interested.

"She's da ruler of Mushroom Kingdom," Luigi told her. "Me and my older brother Mario are good friends with her."

"Won't they be scared to see us...?" asked Junko.

"Peach may probably freak outta bit, but I'm sure Mario will be able to handle eet," said Luigi. "Not many things surprise him, and he'z very open to anything new. He'z a friendly fellow, so I'm sure he will definitely help-a you girls, even if you are zombies!"

"Then it's decided!" said E. Gadd. "Luigi will take you to his house and meet Mario tomorrow morning! It's not safe to travel out in the woods late this night, so stay at my shack until it's daytime."

The zombies looked at each other, unsure about the situation they were in. They were still having a hard time accepting that they came into an entirely different world, one they have never heard of, and their method for returning was currently unavailable as well.

They were glad that the first people they met weren't scared of or hostile towards them just because they were zombies. For now, they agreed to accept the help of these people. Being in an entirely alien world, there was nothing they could rely on other than those they had become acquainted with, so there was no other option.

Their biggest worries now were that Sakura, Saki, Lily, and Romero were missing. Wherever they were, the zombies hoped they were all right and that whoever they ran into would be as nice as the folks they encountered.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

In Mario's words, let's-a go!

And here we have it, my next big story! A crossover between my absolute favorite anime series at the moment, Zombie Land Saga, and the acclaimed Mario series! This is the next big thing I couldn't wait to get out while I was working on The Song of Light! Now that the latter is finished, I can work on this!

It's true ZLS isn't action-oriented series, but I think I managed to find a way to get it to work. I hope you look forward to how I pull things off!

And I know the zombies are supposed to have a "moe filter" when viewed by the audiences so that they look attractive, but from the POV of other characters in the series, they look creepier and more disturbing. I'm going to ignore that in this story, however, and pretend that girls, even without their makeups, look cute and attractive at all times, as if the moe filter is permanently on.

By the way, despite the title, this story **IS NOT** an adaptation of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. I used "Superstar Saga" in the title because of the word Saga alone, as both titles have that word in it, so I thought this is a good opportunity to have fun with said word.

What do you think of the first chapter? I'll do my best to make this story as entertaining as possible!

Please stay tuned for more goodness!


	2. Shockingly Exposed

Someone has been pestering me for a while to make a ZLS and High School of the Dead crossover, or one with Resident Evil. In case anyone missed the memo, I DO NOT take requests from anyone regarding what stories to make. And I am unfamiliar with HSotD as well.

This is a warning to OwlDusty, who keeps on pestering me to do things I do not want to do. I will delete your reviews if you keep this up.

I am serious.

 **Chapter 2**

 **Shockingly Exposed**

* * *

Opening her eyes, Sakura was greeted with the blue sky and the morning sun shining down onto her face. She sat up and stretched her arms high into the air before rubbing her eyes. She looked around, expecting to see the familiar sight of the room she slept in and the other zombies in their mattresses, only to find herself in the middle of a flower field.

"So it wasn't a dream..." she said to herself.

"Oh, you're awake," Saki, who was standing next to her, said to her.

"Saki..." Sakura said to her.

"Well, now that it's morning, let's find where the others are," the blonde zombie told her.

"We still don't know where we are," Sakura reminded her as she stood up.

"Yeah, we'll figure that out as well," said Saki. She looked around and saw that they appeared to be in a countryside area. Flowers and trees were all over the place, though there were still human architecture in the form of signs, fences, dirt roads, and... blocks floating in midair...?

Intrigued by the gravity-defying block, the duo went close to it and looked at it from below. "What the hell...?" said Saki with a confused look.

"How is it floating in air...?" asked an equally confused Sakura.

The two tried to get a better look at the block, trying to see if they could find out what was keeping it in air. They assumed there was an invisible pole, though they felt their hands around it and found nothing. The invisible string theory was out of the question as well due to there being nothing above the block from which the string could be attached to.

Saki decided to give the block a knock from below. When she did so, ten gold coins flew out from above it and scattered onto the grass, much to their surprise.

Picking up the coins, Sakura said, "Are these money? There are numbers printed on them!"

"Dunno what currency it is. It's certainly not Japanese yen..." said Saki.

"Should we be taking it? It might belong to someone..." said Sakura.

"I wouldn't care too much," said Saki as she put it in her pants' pocket. "Whoever left it here should take care of his belongings more properly."

Sakura then looked around and noticed something in the distance. "Look! I think I saw buildings!"

Saki looked and saw what Sakura was pointing at. "You're right! Those are buildings! Let's see if we can find out where we are there!"

"We have to be careful not to be seen by the people there, though," Sakura reminded her.

"Small problem!" said Saki with confidence. The two began heading for the dirt road that appeared to be leading to those buildings, and they saw a man-sized turtle standing on its hind legs standing there.

Waving at them, the turtle said, "Howdy, folks! Nice day, don't you think so?"

The two zombie screamed in shock, and without a second thought, Saki rushed up to the turtle as fast as she could and gave him an uppercut to the chin so hard that he flew out of his shell, thus leaving him in his boxer shorts, and fell back onto the ground unconsciously.

As Saki was breathing heavily, trying to recover from the shock, Sakura approached her and said, "Did you have to hit him?!"

"What else should I do, then?!" the blonde asked her.

Before Sakura could answer, someone spoke to her from behind. She turned around and saw another turtle standing there. "Why did you attack my friend?!" he asked.

Sakura let out a shriek and then slapped the turtle across the face hard and sent him onto the ground. Seeing this, Saki gave her a thumbs up.

The two then hurriedly ran from the place before those two turtles got back up. After thinking that the coast was clear, they stopped to think about what they just saw.

"Were those large, talking turtles just now?!" said Saki.

"Maybe they're mascots for some company?" said Sakura.

"They look pretty real to me..." said Saki. "In any case, we should avoid taking the road, lest people see us..."

Sakura agreed with this. As they were beginning to move again, Sakura looked up and noticed something. "Saki...?"

"Yeah?" the blonde asked her.

"Are those eyes on that cloud...?" said Sakura, pointing at a particularly large cloud in the air that had a pair of black, dot-like eyes.

* * *

Lily woke up to Romero licking his face. The young zombie sat up from the flattened cardboard boxes he used as a mattress. Looking around, he found himself in an alleyway full of old junk.

Thinking back, he remembered popping out of the pipe and finding himself among some bushes, and when he looked around, he was in an urban area, with houses everywhere.

Unsure about where he was and where his companions were, he decided to find a place to hide until it was daytime, which was how he ended up in the alleyway.

Standing up and stretching his limbs, Lily noticed that there were people walking around outside the alleyway. Telling Romero to be quiet, the zombie quietly approached the exit to see if he could find out where he was currently.

His eyes and mouth widened when he saw the sight out there.

People wearing what appeared to be mushroom caps were wandering around the place, most of them rather short in appearance. Lily also took note of the buildings and saw that most of them were shaped like mushrooms. In fact, there were pictures of mushrooms printed on various things.

"What is this place...?!" said Lily in disbelief. When he saw some people coming to close to the alleyway's entrance, he hurriedly ran back inside and hid behind some of the larger pieces of junk.

When the coast was clear, he looked out from where he was and said, "What am I gonna do...? I can't go out there with so many people walking around... They'll be scared to death of my appearance..."

There were two other pathways on both his sides that led out to different but close by areas. On one side, some children with mushroom caps were playing soccer close to the alleyway. One of them kicked the ball into the alleyway, unsure if intentional or unintentional.

Lily never noticed the ball approaching, and the next he knew, his head was smacked by the ball in the side so hard that the former went flying off his body and out of the alleyway on the other side.

Lily's head hit the ground out there and rolled around for a bit before coming to a stop, but it had already attracted the attention of several people.

When a middle aged woman looked at the severed head, the latter shifted its eye to her, causing her the shriek. In response, Lily's severed head shriek as well.

Seeing the screaming, disembodied head, everyone else jumped back in fright, wondering what sort of grisly incident led to this appearing in the public.

Lily's body rushed out of the alleyway and picked up the head before attaching it back onto the neck firmly. This didn't make things any better, however, as Lily looked around with great panic at all the horrified expressions of the "mushroom people" looking at him. "Oh no! They saw everything!"

The people were all talking to each other about what they were currently looking at.

"That kid just put her head back on like it was nothing!"

"Why does she look so pale?!"

"She looks almost like a dead body!"

"Is that her heart outside her body?! It's even beating!"

"Who is she? What even is she?!"

Feeling of dread and fear filled Lily as he continued to look at all the people talking about him with shocked expressions. He could hear some people mentioning the word zombie too. He was so terrified that his heart was beating fast nonstop, a sight that horrified and disgusted some people.

The secret that he and his companions had tried so hard to hide was now out.

"No! No! No! They saw me! They know I'm a zombie!" he said in his head as tears began to form in his eyes. "What am I going to do?! What will they do to me?! Are they going to kill me? Is that even possible? Or are they going to take me to a science lab to study and dissect me?!"

Romero suddenly rushed out of the alleyway and ran up to Lily and then began barking at the people. Upon seeing a decayed dog with one eye, they were even more shocked and started talking about it. The fact that it was barking fiercely didn't help either.

Lily bent down and grabbed Romero by the body. "Romero! Don't attack anyone! You'll only scare them more and even provoke them!"

Lily continued to hear people talking about him, and they were all about how strange and creepy he looks. No longer able to hold back his tears, he looked down and broke down into tears, waiting for the terrible fate that might befall her.

"Are you all right-a, little girl?" a man asked him all of a sudden. Lily slowly looked up to see a man holding out his hand to him.

Unlike the mushroom people around him, this man is a normal human with a moustache. His attire consisted of red and blue overalls and a red hat with the capital M printed in front of it.

"Don't-a cry, little girl," the man said to him with a smile in a friendly tone. "My name eez Mario. Do you need-a me to help you?"

* * *

After morning had arrived, Luigi said good-bye to E. Gadd before going on his way home, taking with him the four zombie girls encountered yesterday night. E. Gadd once again assured them that he would look into this special warp pipe they used for coming to this world and help them get back to their own.

Luigi led them out of the forest, which didn't take too long, and traveled down a dirt path. "Hope you enjoy da view on da way back," Luigi told them. "I'm sure there are things here you don't-a find back in your world."

"Wow! It sure is beautiful here!" commented Junko as she looked at the beautiful scenery of the nature around her. There were trees and flowers everywhere, some of which were species she had never seen before and probably doesn't exist in their world. She then saw white flower with a face and legs skipping happily on the grass. Needless to say, this surprised her. "That... That flower is moving by itself!" Her two "intelligent" companions saw this and were surprised as well.

"How... How is that possible?! It even has a face!" said Ai in shock.

"Oh, that's just a Crazee Dayzee," explained Luigi in a completely unsurprised tone. "Flowers don't move around or have faces back in your world?"

"No way! Something like that will surely freak everyone out!" Ai told him.

"Well, then you've just-a come across something extraordinary!" said Luigi.

The group continued on their way and eventually came across the peculiar sight of a metal block floating in the air. The zombies stared at it with dumbfounded expressions, trying to find an explanation for such a thing. Luigi, on the other hand, walked underneath the block before jumping up to hit it from below with his fist. In doing so, a single coin flew out from the top of it and fell to the ground, and he picked it up. "Eh, beggars can't be choosers..." he commented as he looked at the coin before putting it into his pocket.

"Did a coin just flew out of that block just now?! And why is that block even floating in the air unaided?!" asked a surprised and dumbfounded Ai.

"Yeah, item blocks are a thing around here," explained Luigi. "You'll never know what you'll get when you strike them. Sometimes it's food or items you can use in some way, and at times, it's coins."

"You can really find free money just from these blocks...?" asked Junko, pointing at the item block.

"Yeah, though they're not the best way for getting rich," said Luigi while looking at it. "The amount tend to be very little, and it's not often you come across them containing coins as well. The one I got earlier is only worth one coin..."

After having explained what item blocks were, the group continued on their way. As they were passing by a pound, a rotund, red fish poked it head out of the water surface and looked at them. The girls looked at the fish with widened eyes, surprised at the fact that a fish would behave in such a way and even seemingly breathe air.

Tae walked up to the pond and bent down in front of the fish to stare at it. When she opened her mouth and began to drool, the fish foresaw danger and thus dived back underwater fast. The zombie was going to dive into the pond as well, but Ai and Junko both saw this coming, so they rushed over to Tae and grabbed her before it was too late. "No! Tae! You cannot go in there!" Ai told her.

Looking at those two trying to hold back Tae, Luigi asked Yuugiri, "Is taking care of her quite a burden...?"

"It can be burdensome at times, but for the most part, Lady Tae is an obedient girl," replied the courtesan.

Ai and Junko returned to them, dragging along Tae, who was still trying to get to the pond. "We'll get you something to eat later, okay? So leave that poor fish alone!" Ai told Tae, and just like that, Tae nodded over and over. "Good! And if you want to find Sakura and the others, you should cooperate and be a good girl as well!" Again, the zombie nodded.

"Well, now that you've tamed your... friend..." said Luigi, "let's continue heading to my house. We haven't eaten breakfast yet, so you must be hungry."

"Actually, we never feel hungry after becoming zombies, but we still eat out of habit from when we were still alive," Junko told him, "so it's all right; you don't have to feel the need to treat us to something. We can live fine without food or water!"

"Still, it feels wrong to not treat guests to something," said Luigi. "Either way, since you're new here, you should try out the cuisine we have here!"

The group continued heading down the path, and along the way, they came across quite a few things that surprised the zombies and boggled their minds. There were large green pipes sticking out of the ground, and some of them had red plant-like creatures with large mouths filled with teeth coming out of them. Luigi told them that those were Piranha Plants and were dangerous creatures that should be avoided at all cost.

Occasionally, they came across a round, black bomb that had eyes and feet wandering around. Luigi said those were Bob-Ombs, sentient bombs that blow up when attacked. According to him, they were found in the wild and not artificial creations of anybody, which sounded even weirder to the zombies considering those things' mechanical appearances.

At one point, they even saw a turtle-like being flying around in the sky while seated on a cloud with a smiley face. Luigi said that was a Lakitu and that flying around on clouds was their main method of transportation. He warned them that Lakitu tend to be aggressive, but they were fortunate that the one that flew past them was a nice one.

"Wow... This world is something! It's like something out of a fantasy story book!" commented Junko, who was actually enjoying what she saw so far.

"I'm still having a hard time accepting everything I've seen... Everything is so... unscientific!" said Ai.

"You should just accept that this place defies all sorts of logic and explanation, unlike our world, Lady Ai," Yuugiri told her.

"Probably easy to say for you, considering your 'accept anything as they come along' attitude..." said Ai, looking at Yuugiri, and that was when she noticed a hill behind her in the distance having a pair of large black eyes. Pointing at said hill, she said to Luigi, "Next, you're going to tell me those are actual eyes on that hill and not strange landscape formations..." After saying that, the eyes on the hill blinked. Ai stared at the hill with an expression that could be described as having lost her mind.

* * *

Lily was reluctant at first to follow the man named Mario to his house, as he was taught not to go with strangers. However, after seeing the interaction between Mario and the mushroom people, he got the impression that this Mario was a good man and also a famous one loved by many, so he decided to take this risk. In fact, when Lily said he doesn't know who Mario is, everyone was surprised, as they claimed it wasn't possible for people to not know who he is.

Now the zombie was currently in his house, seated in the dining room. Romero was on the floor next to him.

Mario brought Lily a cup of hot cocoa and said to him, "Here! Drink-a theez! Eef you would like-a anything else, just-a let me know!"

"It's all right. Thanks," said Lily as he accepted the drink from him.

Mario noted his depressed expression and also looked at Romero, who didn't look friendly towards him. Turning back to Lily, he asked him, "So your name eez... No. 6?"

"Actually, that's my... stage name... I don't feel comfortable saying my real name for now..." Lily told him.

"Well, if you say so..." Mario said to him. "Where do you come from?"

"Saga," replied Lily.

"Saga? Neva heard-a of eet," said Mario. "How did you get-a here?"

"My friends and I entered a strange pipe with light inside it, and then we got separated. I found myself here with Romero afterwards," explained Lily.

"Sounds like-a warp-a pipe," said Mario while rubbing his chin. "It seems you came from a pretty far place. Did you say you have friends who came along?"

"Yes," said Lily with a nod. "But like I said earlier, I got separated from them while inside the pipe, and now I don't know where they are... We're... We're all zombies, so we're afraid of letting people see us... I'm worried about them getting seen by people..."

"Zombies, huh?" said Mario. "I had a feeling that-a would be da case."

Lily looked at him with fearful eyes and asked, "Aren't you afraid of me? I'm a zombie, you know..."

"I've seen a lot of things in my life," said Mario, "so very little surprises me. I'm open to anything that-a may happen, no matta how absurd eet eez. Plus, I've actually met zombies before."

Hearing this, Lily looked at him with a surprised look. "You did?!"

Mario nodded as he thought about the hopping zombies he met in Chai Kingdom while looking for an alien named Tatanga and rescuing Princess Daisy. "I met-a some while on an adventure in a faraway land-a. They were hostile towards me, but I managed to fight-a back. Pretty tough to take-a out... Had to use fire to burn them to death." When he said this, he noticed Lily had a scared look on his face, so he said, "But don't-a worry! That-a doesn't mean I see you as an enemy!"

Lily sighed with relief after hearing this, and then he asked Mario, "So you won't hurt me, right?"

Mario nodded with a smile. "I can tell that-a you're a good girl, so I won't-a hurt you! In fact, I will help find-a your friends!"

Hearing this cheered Lily up, so he said, "Thank you, Mister Mario!"

Just then, Mario heard someone calling out to him from outside the dining room. "I'm home, Mario," said the voice.

"Ah, it's my younga brotha Luigi!" said Mario while looking out the room. "Wait-a here, Lily." He then left the room to meet Luigi and talk with him.

A few seconds later, Luigi stepped into the dining room and saw Lily and Romero. Both sides stared at each other in silence for several seconds, and after Luigi was done observing Lily from head to toe, he left the dining room. Somehow, Lily felt as if he was freaked out by him being a zombie and frowned a little.

Suddenly, four people rushed into the dining room, and when Lily saw them, he was surprised. "Ai! Junko! Yuugiri! Tae!"

"Lily! It really is you!" said Ai in surprise.

"I'm so glad you're all right!" said Junko in relief.

"I'm relieved to see you safe and sound, Lady Lily!" Yuugiri said to him with a smile. Tae raised her arms and made a happy-sounding cry before running over to Lily to hug him, and the latter hugged her back.

"I miss you too, Tae!" Lily happily said to her.

Romero barked happily while running up to the other three zombies, and Yuugiri bent down to pet him. Mario and Luigi came into the dining room with smiles on their faces. "Good for them to finally reunite with each otha!" said Mario with a smile.

"Indeed!" said Luigi. He then counted the number of zombies present. "Wait-a minute... They told-a me there are seven of them, not counting da dog, so there are still two of them missing..."

"Really? Then we'll have to find-a them," said Mario.

* * *

Saki and Sakura had finally arrived at the town they saw from a distance, and they learned from a sign that the place was called Toad Town. Once they've entered the place, they were surprised by what its inhabitants look like. "What is this place...?!" asked Sakura.

"Those hats sure are popular, aren't they?" said Saki, referring to the mushroom caps everyone was wearing. "Everyone is speaking Japanese, so we must still be in Japan, but where?"

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked her.

"Honestly, I'm a bit stumped..." admitted the blonde. "I figured that we might get a proper answer to things if we come here, but I think things just got more confusing... Anyway, let's look around some more and see if we can find out anything useful."

The two zombies carefully sneaked out of the bushes when no one was watching and headed into an alleyway close by. As they were sneaking underneath a window there, they overheard the people inside talking. "What's this I'm hearing about a zombie appearing in town?" asked a female voice. When those two heard this, they were surprised and decided to listen to it more.

"A young girl with oddly pale skin showed up today," said a male voice. "Her heart is also outside her body... and it's beating..."

"Ugh... Must be a disgusting sight..." said the female voice.

"Heart outside the body? They must be talking about Lily!" said Saki softly.

"And she also has a dog with her that is missing one eye and also looks very decayed," continued the male voice.

"That's Romero!" said Sakura.

"What happened to them?" asked the female voice.

"The weird girl began crying, probably from shock due to the attention she was getting, but then Mario showed up and showed her kindness," replied the male voice. "He offered to take her back to his home and take care of her."

"Mario? Well, since this is Mario we're talking about, everything should be fine," said the female voice. "He knows what he's doing."

"And assuming that the girl really is a zombie and is a threat, Mario can easily deal with her," said the male voice. "There's nothing he cannot beat after all!"

Hearing this, Saki and Sakura became somewhat worried. "Do you think Lily and Romero will really be all right with this Mario person?" Sakura asked Saki.

"I'm not sure..." replied Saki. "The way they describe Mario makes it sound like he's someone who knows how to fight... Not sure if that's very comforting..."

"What do we do now? Maybe we should go look for this Mario person?" suggested Sakura.

"I'm thinking of that. If only we know where he lives..." said Saki.

Just then, a cockroach scuttled towards them and climbed up Sakura's leg. Realizing this, she shrieked loudly while shooting up from her crouched position, right in front of the window. When she looked at the window, she saw a "mushroom woman" staring back at her.

There was a moment of silence as both sides stared at each other. The woman then asked a mushroom man if the zombie girl he saw looked anything like the one outside the window at the moment. That man came over to look at the stunned Sakura and Saki for several seconds before saying no.

There was a moment of silence again before the woman screamed, "ZOMBIES!"

"Curses!" cursed Saki. "Run!" She and Sakura rushed out of the alleyway, only to be greeted by several mushroom people, all of whom were looking at them in shock.

"Oh no! What do we do?!" asked a panicking Sakura.

Saki looked around desperately at the shocked crowd and tried to find a way out, but there didn't seem to be anywhere for them to run or hide. Looking back into the alleyway, she saw that people had gathered at the other end as well, so that route was out of question.

They could hear the people saying all sorts of things about them.

"What are they?!"

"They look like zombies!"

"Wasn't there little girl earlier with a similar appearance? Are they related?"

"Be careful! They may be dangerous and even contagious!"

"Someone get the police!"

Looking around in fear, Sakura said, "The people are scared of us!"

"Darn it!" said Saki angrily with her fists clenched. "Is there no way out of this?!"

Just as the people were talking about them, a blonde woman in a pink dress showed up at the back of the crowd and asked what happened. When the people noticed her, they were surprised, and some of them told her what happened.

"Zombies?" said the woman curiously.

Hearing this, an elderly mushroom man next to her said in shock, "Zombies?! How can such foul and evil creatures exist?! Princess, you must run for your safety! They must not lay their dirty hands on you!"

"On the contrary, I want to see them for myself," said the woman. Despite the elderly man's protests, the woman went up ahead, and everyone parted ways for her to pass.

Saki and Sakura saw the elegantly-dressed woman approaching them and were curious. "Who is she?" wondered Sakura. "Her dress is so beautiful!"

The woman looked at the stunned and cautious zombies from head to toe before smiling. "Hello! It's nice to meet you! I'm Princess Peach, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

I'm visiting my grandmother tomorrow for four days. While she has a computer with internet access at her house, I'm not sure if I can get to use it, so if that is the case, don't expect updates until later, though I can try to type and update using my smartphone. Just that it's quite frustrating using that...

Anyway, hope you liked this chapter! Let me know what you think!

And in regards to the ZLS reaction story, I will work on it after I come back. Please look forward to it!


	3. Healthy Zombies

Well, my trip to grandma's house is cancelled due to various reasons. Resting at home is fine too, and I also get to continue with my stories!

 **Chapter 3  
Healthy Zombies**

* * *

The woman introducing herself as Princess Peach had appeared before Saki and Sakura, who were still nervous about the attention they were getting from the people. "Prin... Princess...?" said Sakura curiously.

Peach nodded. "Yes, I'm the ruler of Mushroom Kingdom. Please do not be afraid. I will bring no harm to you. I can see that you are afraid and even feeling lost. As long as you bring no harm to my people, I am willing to aid you in whatever way I can!"

Saki and Sakura looked at each other, unsure what to take of this woman. For all they know, this could be a trap. The elderly mushroom man came forward, standing next to Peach, and said to the her, "Princess! Be careful with these foul beings! They must be feigning innocence in order to lower your guard! You should stay back and let the guards deal with them!"

"Calm down, Toadsworth," Peach told him. "We should not treat anyone as enemies or dangerous unless we have proof! It is not right to accuse the innocent!"

"I'd hate to interrupt you, princess," a random onlooker said to her. "Earlier today, there was another zombie sighting here in Toad Town, but then Mario came and took her away when he saw that she was scared and crying."

Hearing this, Saki said to Sakura, "They must be talking about Lily!"

"Oh, something like that happened?" said Peach curiously.

"Why didn't anyone report this to us earlier?!" Toadsworth said to that person. "Zombies are showing up in Toad Town! This must be the first sign of a viral outbreak! We have to do something about this!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, old man, but the last time we checked, we're perfectly healthy zombies with no viruses in our bodies!" Saki said to him with an offended look.

"You think you can fool me?!" said Toadsworth while pointing his cane at her.

"Enough, Toadsworth!" Peach said to him with a raised volume. "First, we will contact Mario. There must be a good reason he brought back with him the zombie he saw. I believe these zombies all know each other."

"I'm very sure the zombie this Mario person found is our friend..." Sakura said to her. "If that is the case, we would like to meet with her as soon as possible! Please!"

"Mario person? How dare you speak of our hero like he is a random nobody?!" Toadsworth angrily said to her. "He is known throughout the world, and yet you talk like you have no idea who he is! Have you been living under a rock?!"

"Do you have to be so mad, you old geezer?!" Saki angrily said to him while stomping the ground, which made most of the onlookers take a step back in fear. "We've been dead for several years and only came back to life as zombies about half a year ago, so we're missing out on several major news!"

"I am interested in hearing your story, but first, I will contact Mario and tell him to bring over the zombie he found," Peach told the two zombies.

* * *

Back in Mario's house, the zombies there had finished explaining to Mario their story, about their origin and how they got here.

"Well, eet sure eez an interesting story..." commented Mario after they were done explaining things to him.

"Right now, our biggest worries are looking for our two missing friends and also trying to find a way home..." said Ai, worried.

"E. Gadd is a smart man. I'm sure he can find a way," Mario told her. "I will also ask smart people I know to see if they can find out something about this. Worry not-a, for we will definitely help-a you go home!"

"Thank you very much for your help and also your willingness to befriend us, even though we're zombies," Junko said to him. "We were so scared about how you will react to seeing us... We tried so hard to keep our true forms a secret back in our world..."

"Don't-a worry; you're not-a dangerous in any way!" Mario said to her. "I can tell that-a you girls are being honest!"

Just then, the phone in the living room they were in rang, and Luigi went to answer it. "Hello? Yes, theez eez da Mario Brothas' residence. Theez eez Luigi speaking. Oh? Da princess requires our presence? Oh? Okay, I will tell Mario about-a eet."

Luigi then hung the phone and turned to Mario and told him, "Da princess wants uz to go Toad Town. She heard about-a zombies you brought-a back, and apparently, two more zombies showed up there as well, claiming to know the one you brought-a back."

Hearing this, the other zombies stood up in surprise and happiness. "It must be Saki and Sakura!" said Lily.

"Please let them be all right!" said Junko.

"I'm sure da princess will take good-a care of them," Mario said to them. "Okay, since we know where your friend-a eez, let's-a go to Toad Town fast!"

* * *

While waiting for Mario and co. to arrive, Peach had Saki and Sakura seated at a park, as Toadsworth kept on insisting that they shouldn't bring those two back to the castle for fear of potential danger they might bring. Even though Peach didn't think those two were dangerous, she decided to listen to him for precaution and decide what to do later.

While sitting with those two on a park bench, surrounded by onlookers, Peach listened to them explaining their origin and how they ended up here. "I see..." said Peach, nodding slowly.

"You really believe us?" asked a worried Sakura.

"I see no reason for you to come up with something like that, even though it does sound weird..." said Peach.

"So... where exactly are we? What part of Japan is this?" Saki asked her.

"Japan?" said Peach curiously.

"Um... The name of the country we're in currently...?" said Saki, finding it strange she didn't know what that means.

"I'm sorry, but this is the Mushroom Kingdom," Peach told her. "I'm afraid I have never heard of anywhere called Japan..." The onlookers also said the same.

The two zombies were confused, and then Sakura said to the princess, "But you're speaking Japanese!"

"This is the universal language people on this planet speak," Peach told her. "As far as I'm concerned, there has never been an official term for this language."

The two zombies was even more confused, and then Saki asked, "What planet is this?"

"Earth," replied Peach.

"For a moment, I thought this was an alien planet... But that still doesn't explain why you don't know about Japan..." said Saki, even more confused.

Suddenly, there was a large amount of murmuring as the onlookers around them looked back. Peach and the two zombies also turned to see what it was all about, and they heard people saying that Mario was here. "Oh good! Great timing!" said Peach with a smile. "I'm sure he brought your friend along!"

Saki and Sakura watched as the crowd parted ways for Mario and Luigi to come forward, and behind them were five girls and a dog. The five zombies behind the plumber brothers looked around nervously and even scared about the attention they were attracting from the people, something they had never experienced back in their own world. They could hear murmurs of whether or not they were dangerous and how strange they look, and hearing these didn't make them feel any better. There was at least one comment that said they didn't look so bad.

When Saki and Sakura saw their companions, they stood up in joy and called out to them. Lily immediately rushed over to Sakura and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Sakura! Saki! I miss you both!"

"Me too! I'm glad you're all right!" Sakura said to her.

"Great to see you all safe and sound!" Saki said to the others.

"Same goes for you!" Ai said to her.

As the zombies happily reunited with each other, Peach said to Mario, "Thank you for helping reuniting them, Mario! It always feel good to watch scenes like this happening! There's nothing happier than friends and family being together again after getting separated!"

"You helped too, Princess!" Mario said to her. "We were wondering how to find da remaining two, but then you told-a uz you found-a them!"

Toadsworth walked up to Mario and asked him, "Well, Master Mario, since you judged it right to take home zombies with you, do you have anything to say about them?"

"They're good-a people," Mario told him. "You do not-a have to worry!"

"Yeah, they even helped me outta when I was helping E. Gadd with his ghost catching yesterday night," added Luigi.

"Even so, we can't let our guards down too much," said Toadsworth, still being skeptical. "And putting that aside, we have to worry about the possibility of them carrying contagious viruses on them! If you've seen zombie movies, you'll know that they can spread viruses that turn other living things into zombies!"

Turning to him, Saki said, "I told you already we don't carry viruses! Tae here has bitten people multiple times, and nobody ever became zombies!" As if responding to her, Tae raised her arms into the air and made a sound.

"I still insist that a proper checkup be done on you folks!" said Toadsworth. "You can't expect people to believe you just with words!"

"Why you?!" Saki angrily said to him.

Toadsworth turned to Peach and asked if she agrees. Peach thought for a while and then turned to the zombies and said, "It's not that I doubt you, for the sake of giving the people a good impression, I suggest that you visit the hospital for a bit of checkup to make sure that you are indeed free of viral infection. I'm sorry if this offended you in any form..."

"You don't have to feel sorry! I think we should!" Sakura said to her while waving her hands. "To be honest, we never went to the doctor before, so I think this might be a good opportunity to get to know our bodies better!" She then turned to the others and asked if they agree.

"I think this would be a good idea," said Ai, and the others agreed.

"I know a good-a doctor," Mario said to them.

* * *

After arriving at the hospital and getting lots of attention from the people in there, the zombies were introduced to Dr. Toadley, who Mario claims is the best doctor in the Mushroom Kingdom and knows almost everything related to health, even those not actually related to health. Supposedly, one of his greatest accomplishments to date was finding a cure for blorbs, a disease that causes people to become large and round.

The zombies soon found themselves wearing hospital gowns and getting their turns receiving checkups from Dr. Toadley and his nurse, both of him were covered almost entirely in garbs in case they would get infected.

First up was Sakura. As she sat on the examination bed, Dr. Toadley was in front of her, holding her arm and checking for pulses. "Do you have a pulse?" Dr. Toadley asked her. She was going to answer when the doctor continued. "No, you do not have! This is most interesting, as it proves that you are not considered alive!"

"Yeah... That makes sense..." commented Sakura at the doctor's somewhat eccentric personality.

Dr. Toadley then looked at the scar on her forehead and said, "The scar on your forehead... Am I able to tell how it came to be? Yes! With trained eyes, I can tell that it is the result of a powerful impact leaving behind a crack in the skull! Is it the cause of your death in the first place? Most certainly!"

"Well, I died getting hit by a truck..." Sakura told him.

"A most unfortunate accident, is it? Yes it it! You should have looked both ways before crossing the street," the doctor told her.

Sakura lowered her head with a depressed look. "I've always been known to have streaks of bad luck in everything I try to do, and it ultimately led to my untimely death..."

"And now here you are, being granted a second chance at life in the most interesting manner!" Dr. Toadley said to her. "Am I interested in wanting to find out more about zombies? I most certainly do, and you granted me that chance!"

"Um... Thanks..." said Sakura, not sure if this was actually a good thing.

* * *

Saki was next. Seated on the same examination bed with a somewhat grumpy look, Dr. Toadley observed her bandaged parts of her body and also her various scars. "Did you die as a result of a vehicular accident?" Dr. Toadley asked her. "Indeed! I can tell from your wounds that this is how you died!"

"More like falling from a tall location while on a bike, and I went out spectacularly, if I may think so," replied Saki, smiling proudly a bit.

"Are you at the age where you attempt reckless things to impress people? You most certainly are that type of person!" Dr. Toadley said to her.

"You know, I'm a bit annoyed at the way you speak..." Saki said to him.

* * *

Ai was next. Looking at her bandaged body, Dr. Toadley said, "Was fire the reason you perished in the first place? That is the most likely answer!"

"Actually, it was a lightning strike..." said Ai, sounding uneasy.

"Close enough! If I may, allow me to look underneath the bandages," the doctor requested.

Looking at him nervously, she said, "It's... It's not a pretty sight... I've seen it many times whenever I'm changing into new ones... I still get horrified by my appearance underneath..."

"Have I seen injuries of many kind? Yes I have!" said the doctor. "Your burnt markings is only one of the many things I have already seen! It is nothing new to me!"

Ai let out a sigh before stretching out her arm to let the doctor undo the bandages there.

* * *

Next up was Junko. As the zombie sat on the bed with a nervous look, Dr. Toadley looked closely at the different color tones on her body and the stitches holding the different parts together. "Even without checking the DNA, can I tell that your body is made together of several people's?" said the doctor. "That is the most likely answer!"

"I've always had the hunch that this is indeed the case..." said Junko. "I died in a plane crash, and I assume that the explosion and impact left me... in several pieces, some of which were lost... so the person who brought me back to life had to use body parts of other people..."

"The stitching technique is impressive, if I may say so myself!" said Dr. Toadley while looking at the stitching with a magnifying glass. "I cannot see a single gap in between each body part! A perfect fusion of the skin if you ask me and definitely a work of art! If I am an art critique, I would say you are a piece of walking art masterpiece!"

Junko blushed a bit and said, "Than... Thank you..."

* * *

Next was Yuugiri. Inspecting the marking and stitching that went around her neck, Dr. Toadley said, "A clear sign of a tight grip around your neck which ultimately led to decapitation! Am I not correct in saying that? I most certainly am!"

Yuugiri said nothing in response other than looking a bit depressed.

"I can tell from your eyes that your death is not something you wish to talk about, so I will press you any further," he said. "I must say, for a decayed being, you have a delicate skin!"

Smiling a bit, Yuugiri said, "My job when I was alive was to entertain and pleasure people, so keeping my looks was important! I guess all the skin care I took benefited me even in death!"

* * *

Lily was up next. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Toadley was paying the most attention to his exposed heart, which was somehow outside the hospital gown, just like when he was in zombie form and his heart was always outside his clothes without an explanation.

"Disregarding why your heart is outside your gown even though the latter does not have a hole the last time I checked," said Dr. Toadley, "how does it feel to walk around with an exposed heart at all times?"

"I put it back inside my body when I'm disguising myself as a human," Lily told him. "And... it feels normal, I guess... I even forget most of the time it's outside... Oh, it even beats when I'm nervous or scared."

"That is most interesting! You do not have any blood circulation, so such a thing is not possible!" said the doctor. "I would love to see it for myself!"

"Well, if there is anything now that can give me a scare..." said Lily.

"How about I tell you that I know for a fact that you are a boy trying to pass off as a girl?" the doctor asked her.

Hearing this, Lily was shocked, which caused his heart to began beating. "How'd you know?!"

Instead of answering him, Dr. Toadley paid attention to the beating her and even placed a stethoscope on it. "Interesting! A lifeless heart with no circulation is capable of beating through the feeling of mental shock alone! Perhaps with enough observation, a great advancement in cardiology can be found!" After putting the stethoscope away, he said, "And I am a doctor who knows the human body inside out. Do you expect me to not be able to tell you what your sex is?"

* * *

Finally, it was Tae's turn. Unlike the others, she was put into a brain scanner. The other zombies were in the room with her, watching the procedure going on. After the scanning process was complete, and Tae was surprisingly cooperative at that, Dr. Toadley approached them with a graph on his hand. "Did you find anything, doctor?" Sakura asked him.

"Did I find anything? Absolutely yes!" he replied. "What I found is a stunning nothing!"

"What...?" asked Ai.

"Because she is not considered alive, there are no brain signals in her head whatsoever, which is peculiar considering that she looks very much alive," explained Dr. Toadley.

"Well, she is the only one among us who is mindless..." said Saki. "I guess that makes sense..."

"Perhaps you would like to have your brain scanned as well to confirm this?" Dr. Toadley asked her.

The zombies looked at each other, and then Sakura volunteered to have her brain scanned. The doctor wasted no time in getting her scanned, and the final result was...

"Nothing! Absolutely no brain activities!" he said while looking at a new graph. "This proves that while you function as being alive and have proper thinking, your brains are still considered dead, completely without any brain activities! This is most peculiar!"

"I guess being a zombie has all sorts of unexplainable things..." said Saki. "Even if we're supposed to be dead, we can still eat and digest food like a normal person."

They then heard gnawing sounds, so they turned to see Tae gnawing on the circular part of the brain scanner from the side. Sakura ran up to her to pull her away. "No, Tae! Don't eat that! That's not... bread roll!"

* * *

Soon, the zombies completed their checkups, including Romero. Apparently, Dr. Toadley also had veterinary skills. The zombies got back into their original clothes and were standing alongside Mario and co., waiting for the doctor to give them his final verdict on things.

"So how'd eet go?" Mario asked them.

"A pretty interesting experience, considering I have never been examined by a modern day doctor," said Yuugiri. "Medical care sure has changed a lot!"

Dr. Toadley then came out from a room with a paper on his hand. "Good news, zombies! Have I come to a conclusion about your health status?" he said to them. "Indeed I have! I am glad to tell you that you are completely free of viral infection! Your bodies are surprisingly healthy for dead bodies! You have no fear of spreading diseases to anyone through contact of any kind!"

"Wow! Isn't that great?" Peach said to them.

Saki turned to Toadsworth with a smug look and said, "Happy now?"

"Congratulations, I guess, but that doesn't mean I'm getting my guard lowered around you!" said the elderly mushroom, looking annoyed.

"Don't-a mind him," Luigi told her. "He's always been known to worry a lot."

"Well, now that you're all confirmed virus-free, it's time I bring you to my castle!" said Peach.

The zombies turned to her in surprise. "You're... You're taking us to your castle?!" asked Junko.

"You mean like a big beautiful castle where kings and queens live?" asked Sakura.

Peach nodded with a smile. "Wow! Lily can't believe Lily is going to a beautiful castle!" said Lily.

"Is it really all right... for people like us to go there...?" asked a worried Ai.

"We get invited to her castle all da time," Luigi told her. "In fact, we even go there wheneva we feel like-a eet! Eef Peach says eets fine, then eet'z fine!"

Mario nodded. "Peach eez a nice person! She invites people to her castle all da time! This is perfectly normal!"

"You should reconsider what you are doing, your highness!" Toadsworth said to Peach with a disapproving look. "We still cannot be sure if they are honest with their stories and identities! For all we know, they could be sent by Bowser to spy on us!"

"Please, Toadsworth, let us not bring any more burden to them," Peach said to him, not looking pleased about his skeptical attitude. "I can tell that they are honest, not to mention lost and confused. Since they are strangers to this world, we should be helping them until they can find a way back home. I know what I am doing."

"Well, if you say so... But do know that it is still important to keep your guard up at all times, your highness," said Toadsworth before eyeing the zombies with a skeptical look.

"Geez... I hate you with a passion already..." grumbled Saki as she looked at him with an annoyed expression.

So it was decided that the zombies were going to Peach's Castle. As they were leaving the building, Ai asked Mario, "I heard the princess's steward mention someone named Bowser just now... Who is he?"

"Just a local troublemaker, that's-a all," Mario told her. "Anyway, don't-a think too much and enjoy your stay here!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Since we don't know the cause of Yuugiri's death yet, I'm going with decapitation by hanging. Due to the stitches going around her neck, the most common theory is that she was beheaded, but then some people proposed another theory that she could've been hung. During the scene in episode one where we see the mindless girls in the dungeon, they all appear to be in positions that hinted at their deaths, such as Saki having her hands stretched out like she was riding a bike, and we learned that she died when she drove a motorcycle off a cliff.

Yuugiri was seen in an upright position with her head hanging down, a position almost identical to being hanged. However, the marking and stitches on her neck seem to be too extreme for simply hanging, which is why I decided to go with decapitation by hanging, which is something that can happen if the hanging procedure didn't go smoothly.


	4. A Royal Experience

**Chapter 4  
A Royal Experience**

* * *

Stepping through a set of large gates, Franchouchou was greeted with the sight a large and wide path leading up to a massive castle with a red roof located in the distance, and surrounding the building was a massive garden filled with a large amount of bushes, trees, and flowers. There were also multiple fountains, not to mention guards.

Needless to say, the incredible sight of the castle grounds amazed the zombies and made their jaws drop, so much that it might as well be literally, which wasn't impossible for them, considering their decaying bodies that might fall apart when you least expect it.

"It's so beautiful!" exclaimed Sakura with sparkling eyes.

"I can't believe we're in this kind of place!" said Junko in disbelief.

"Idols usually don't have the privilege to gain access to a royalty's castle...! I can't believe this is happening to us!" said Ai.

"Cool! I like this place already!" said Saki happily.

"It's so pretty!" exclaimed Lily.

"My! I have never seen such a beautiful place before!" said Yuugiri.

"Then I'm sure you'll like it inside!" Peach said to them. "Come along!"

As the princess walked down the path, leading the zombies and the Mario Bros. with her, the guards on both sides of the path bowed down when she walked past them, showing their respects. When they arrived at the castle door, the guards standing there opened it it for them to go through.

Once inside, Franchouchou was greeted with the sight of the castle's well decorated interior. Most of the walls were painted white, which almost seemed to be glowing. The ceiling was painted to resemble a clear, blue sky, and there was a picture of the sun painted on the floor. They also noticed paintings and banners of Peach herself hanging on the walls.

Guards and servants were standing around the place, bowing down in the presence of Peach and welcoming her back to the castle.

The zombies could not be stopped being amazed at how luxurious this place was. Even though they expected a royalty's castle to be spectacular, being able to see it in person and being there themselves was a whole different experience. "It really is so beautiful!" said Sakura, once again with sparkling eyes.

"Lily feels like a princess just by being here!" said Lily.

"Do... Do we really have the privilege to be here...?" asked a nervous Junko.

"Don't-a worry," Mario told her. "If da princess says you can come here, then you can! Luigi and I come here all da time, even without a special reason!"

"You must be hungry," Peach told the zombies. "Please come to the dining room, and I will tell my chefs to prepare a nice meal for you all!"

As the group walked through the castle hall and headed for the living room, Ai asked Peach, "Excuse me, but since you're a princess, does that mean there is a king and queen?"

"My parents passed away a long time ago," replied Peach, looking back at her a bit. "The throne has been passed down to me ever since."

"I'm sorry to hear that..." said a saddened Junko.

"If that is the case, wouldn't that make you the queen?" Ai asked Peach.

"Technically, that is true," replied the princess. "However, people still refer me to Princess Peach. Honestly saying, Queen Peach doesn't really have a nice ring to it. It's a matter of preference. Teehee!"

"I'm not sure about you all, but Lily would prefer being a princess rather than a queen!" said Lily.

* * *

The zombies were led to the dining room, and it didn't take long for meal to be served. Not only were each of the dishes prepared in incredible-looking ways, they also taste as good as they look.

"Wow! This is good!" commented Saki after taking a bit of her portion.

"It really is delicious!" said Sakura happily.

"I have never eaten such a good-tasting food!" said Yuugiri.

Even Romero got the honor of eating the same food on the table from a nicely decorated dog bowl prepared for him.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it!" Peach happily said to them. "How often do you get to eat high quality cuisine back in your world?"

"Honestly, we don't always eat," Ai told her. "Being zombies, we never starve, so we never feel the need to eat. Because our producer wants to save up on money, he doesn't always buy us our portions."

Peach wasn't too pleased to hear this. "That's not nice! Just because you don't have to eat doesn't mean you should be denied of the good things in life! In any case, please eat until you're content while here!"

"Too bad we don't-a have cakes now," said Luigi, "because if there eez, you won't want-a stop eating eet! Peach bakes da best cake!" Mario nodded in agreement.

"Sounds nice! Lily would love to try it!" said Lily.

"I'll see if I have time!" Peach told her with a smile. "Since you do not have anywhere to go at the moment, you are free to stay in my castle until you have found a way to return to your own world."

"Is it really all right?" Junko asked her. "We're... We're strangers you've only met today and haven't done anything to earn such treatments, yet you're treating us with such hospitality... I don't think we're worthy of all this..."

"Don't worry! A ruler should be helping those in need, no matter where he or she comes from!" Peach told her. "You are strangers lost in my kingdom, so it makes sense that I offer you protection! If Mario has no problems with you, then I will happily accept you all!"

"Excuse me, but I heard people out there saying Mario is a famous person around these parts," Lily said to her. "Is that true?"

"Famous doesn't even begin to describe how well known Master Mario is!" Toadsworth said to her. "I doubt there is anyone on this planet who doesn't know who Mario is! He's that famous!"

"Indeed! My brotha is a superstar!" said Luigi.

"You're making me embarrassed!" said Mario, who was blushing due to the praise he was receiving.

"Why exactly is he famous?" asked Ai.

"You'll be amazed, young lady!" Toadsworth said to her. "For starters, Master Mario has saved our princess multiple times from the evil Bowser and thwarted his plans of taking over Mushroom Kingdom! Not only that, Master Mario has also battled various vile villains in various different parts of the world, saving various countries from threats and resolving their crises! As if that isn't enough, Master Mario is also skilled in various activities, be it tennis, golf, baseball, soccer, or dancing!"

"Wow! You're that skilled?!" Sakura said in awe while turning to look at Mario.

"Eet'z nothing. I'm sure there are still some things that people are betta at than me," said Mario in a humble manner. He then pointed his hand at Luigi. "Luigi eez also very good at those! He accompanied me in various adventures too!"

"Nah, Mario deserve the credits more," said Luigi. "I'm not much of a hero and can't-a do much..."

"Don't say that, Master Luigi!" Toadsworth said to him. "You've accomplished great things as well and even rescued your brother on multiple occasions! Remember that time in Little Fungitown? If it weren't for you, Mario would've turned into a mushroom! You also rescued him from the hands of the vile King Boo!"

"Right! Luigi saved my life a few times!" said Mario with a nod. "I wouldn't have been able to make-a eet through certain things eef eet weren't for heez help!"

Luigi blushed as he scratched the back of his head. "Thanks for da praise! But I still think Mario eez a more talented person than me and so deserves more honor!"

"Hey, you don't have to be so humble!" Saki told him. "If people praise you for your guts, then go ahead and accept those praises and feel good about yourself! Everyone deserves to praised for his deeds!"

"Excuse me, but earlier, you mentioned someone named Bowser..." said Ai, raising her arm. "While at the hospital, Mario said he is a local troublemaker, and just now, you mentioned that he tried to kidnap the princess and take over this kingdom..."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about Bowser!" Toadsworth told her. "What I said is true, but Master Mario is always here to deal with him!"

"Who exactly is he anyway?" asked the bandaged zombie.

"Bowser is the king of his own kingdom," Peach told her. "He's... obsessed with me and so constantly kidnaps me... But like Toadsworth said, Mario always rescues me in the end and teaches him a lesson, so I have nothing to be afraid of!"

"Is... Is it that serious?" asked Junko.

"I'm actually used to it..." said Peach. "It happens so often in a single year that it's like a common occasion... But like I said, Mario always manages to resolve everything in the end, so there is nothing to worry about!"

"Da last time Bowser did-a theez was about a month ago," said Luigi.

"That's pretty recent..." said Sakura.

"Not sure when he will show up again, but Mario will definitely beat-a him again when he does!" said the green plumber with confidence.

"For your sake, I hope he won't show up during your stay here," said Peach. "The last thing I want is for your happy experience here to be ruined by his presence."

"Don't worry! If he shows up, I'll teach him a lesson or two! I didn't become the number one delinquent in Saga for nothing!" said, Saki with confidence while flexing her arm.

"Bowser's no slouch in fighting, so I wouldn't recommend that-a..." Mario told her.

"Hey, you should've seen me when I beat up rival delinquents on a daily basis when I was alive!" Saki told him.

Turning to Toadsworth, Ai said to him with a somewhat displeased look, "And you were suspecting us of being in leagues with him?"

"I'm sorry if Bowser is known for using black magic to create an army of Dry Bones, foul skeletal creatures that should've stayed in their graves, yet don't!" Toadsworth told her. "If he can do something like that, then it's no surprise to think he brought you girls back to life from the grave to do his evil bidding!"

"Oh yeah, Mario told me that he met zombies before, and hostiles one at that," brought up Lily.

Everyone turned to look at Mario, and the zombies were surprised to hear this. "Don't-a worry; that-a doesn't mean I see you as dangerous," Mario assured them.

"Ma'am, if you would please... Do not eat the flowers..." a servant in the room suddenly said. Everyone turned to her and saw that she was referring to Tae, who had grabbed the entire bunch of flowers from a vase on the table and ate it.

"Tae! You shouldn't be eating that!" Sakura, who was sitting next to her, said as she snatched the stems, what was left of the flowers, away from her.

"What terrible manners!" Toadsworth criticized the mindless zombie. "If your portion wasn't enough, you could've asked for more instead of gorging yourself out on what is not food!"

"I'm sorry about her behavior!" Sakura desperately apologized to him. "She can be troublesome at times, but she still listens to what we tell her. We'll make sure that she doesn't misbehave again!"

Tae then looked at Toadsworth and stared at him. Toadsworth stared back at her and said, "You should behave yourself, young lady! Just because you have disabilities doesn't mean you get the free pass in..." Before he could finish, Tae lunged at him and bit his mushroom cap. "YEOW! LET GO OF ME! HOW DARE YOU, YOU UNCOUTH BRUTE!"

"TAE!" gasped Sakura as she and the others hurriedly try to pull the mindless zombie away from the terrified and struggling Toadsworth.

* * *

 **BGM: Peach's Castle (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time)**

For the rest of the day, Peach gave the zombies a tour throughout her castle.

She showed off a large aquarium. The zombies were amazed that something like this even existed inside the castle. Tae pressed her face against the glass and looked at the fish swimming around in there while drooling nonstop, and she even licked the glass. Sakura hurriedly pulled her away, while Toadsworth commented frustratingly about the mindless zombie's lack of manners.

Next, Peach took them to the book room. They were amazed by the towering bookcases filled with a seemingly unlimited amount of books. The princess gave them free access to whatever book they want. When Lily asked her if there were any books about construction machines, the princess was curious as to why she would be interested in such a thing, but nevertheless, she told the keeper of the book room to help find those books.

She later took them to the garden. The beautiful sight of the flowers planted there amazed some of the zombies, and Peach even said they were to free to pick whatever they want. Lily and Yuugiri saw a fountain with the statue of a star in the center of it, and the former took off the star accessory on his head and playfully held it in front of the said statue. Tae charged right through a row a bush, creating a hole the shape of herself on it. Toadsworth angrily yelled at her for ruining the bush, while Sakura apologized to him over and over.

They continued to tour the castle and were amazed at everything they saw. It seemed that Tae had to cause some sort of trouble wherever she went, and Toadsworth was always there to scold her, thus making Sakura apologize to him all the time.

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

After the zombies spent the entire day touring the castle and taking their time to relax, Peach showed them the guest room where they would stay at. It was a large room with multiple beds, more than their numbers.

"Feel free to use this as your room!" Peach said to them.

"Woohoo! Definitely beats what we have back home!" commented Saki happily.

Lily tossed himself onto one of the beds and said, "It's so soft! Weeeee!" Tae tossed herself onto the same bed, and it caused Lily to bounce up high into the air as a result.

"If you want to, you can take a bath now," Peach told them. "I will tell my servants to guide you there and provide you with everything you need to clean yourselves!"

Hearing this, the zombies had looks of surprise on their faces as they turned to look at her. "Can we really use the bathroom?" Junko asked Peach with sparkling eyes and her hands clasped.

"Of course you can!" Peach said to her.

Hearing this, the zombies all threw their arms into the air. "All right! We finally get to bathe properly!" exclaimed Saki.

Peach was confused by their behavior and so said, "Wow... You seem extra happy about this... It's as if you've never taken a bath before..."

"We aren't allowed to use the bathroom back in our world..." Sakura told her. Needless to say, Peach was surprised to hear this. "Our producer told us to clean ourselves in the yard using the garden hose... That's pretty much all we do to clean ourselves... The most we ever get to use is a bar of soap..."

"How terrible!" said Peach, sounding shocked and angry. "How can he treat you like this?! Why wouldn't he let you use the bathroom?!"

"Not sure, but probably has to do with not wanting our smells to stick in the bathroom or get it dirty," replied Saki, not sounding happy about it, "which is a bunch of baloney, because we sniffed ourselves many times, and there's no odor on us at all! Just because we're dead doesn't mean we're unhygienic! If we do become unhygienic, then it's his fault for not letting us bathe properly!"

"Such a horrible person! I can't believe he would treat you with such little respect!" said Peach angrily. "Don't worry; now that you're here, you can use the bathroom to your consent! Clean yourself to the fullest you can, and when you go back, amaze him with your fragrance!"

The zombies were glad to hear that they would finally be able to get a proper bath. Under Peach's order, a servant led the zombies through the castle until they arrived at the bathroom used by the servants of this place. They were amazed at what they saw.

The bathroom was a large and splendid-looking one. There was a large pool filled with warm water in the center of the room, and around it were mirrors, shower nozzles, soaps, shampoos, and other cleaning materials. It was as if they were at the public baths.

"Wow! This is amazing!" exclaimed Saki.

"I can't believe we're going to bathe here!" said Sakura. She then looked at Tae and asked if she was excited. The latter threw her arms into the air and made a cry that might or might not imply she was happy.

"Please feel free to use whatever you want to clean yourself!" the servant told them. "I hope you have a good time!"

The zombies began to undress themselves. As they were doing so, the servant noticed Lily standing just outside the room, looking away with a blushing face. "What's wrong, little one?" she asked him. "Why don't you go in there?"

"I'll bathe after they're done..." he replied. "I'm not... used to bathing with other people."

"Oh, you're a shy one, aren't you? Heehee!" the servant said with a giggle. "Don't be afraid! You're all girls! If it's because of reasons related to your body..."

"Lily's a boy," Saki said straightforwardly, causing everyone to stare at her with widened eyes.

"Saki! You shouldn't say that so carelessly!" Sakura said to her.

The servant was the most stunned to hear this for obvious reasons. She then turned to look at Lily, who was pouting and looking away with a displeased look. "Oh my! Is that true?!" she asked him, and the latter begrudgingly nodded. She then giggled and said, "Well, you have an interesting hobby! You also have quite the looks for it! I never would have guessed that you are young boy! Well, I understand why you don't want to bathe with them now, so feel free to use it when they are finished."

"I don't mind," said Yuugiri. "Lady Lily is a kid after all."

"Please respect his decision if he doesn't want to..." said Ai and Junko with blushing faces while waving their hands. Clearly, they weren't comfortable bathing with a young boy, even if he looks like a girl.

* * *

Several minutes later, Peach was walking down the hallway when she saw Sakura coming out of the guest room she showed them to and approached her. "Princess!" Sakura said to her.

"What is it?" Peach asked her. "And did you have a nice bath?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes! It was a great experience bathing in a place like that!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed it!" said Peach happily. "Did you need my help?"

"I was thinking of just asking one of the servants, but anyway, I'm wondering if you have any bandages," Sakura told her. "We need quite a large amount... Ai needs to change into new bandages..."

"Ai? She's the one covered in bandages, right?" asked Peach, and then she nodded. "Okay, I will tell my servants to bring them over to your room. By the way, does she change into new ones everyday?"

Sakura nodded. "More or less, if she gets wet all over..."

"I see... Must be a hard having to cover yourself up in such a large amount of everyday..." said Peach. "She must feel really bad about how she looks like underneath..."

"Um... I think... I did get to see her skin underneath a few times when helping her with the bandages..." said Sakura in a saddened tone while reminiscing the burned skin and tree-like markings on her friend's body. "Honestly, it's really not a pretty sight... I feel bad for her, having her appearance turned out like that..."

"What happened to her that she turned out like that?" Peach asked her.

"Um... Lightning strike... It killed her..." said Sakura.

"That's horrible!" said Peach in shock.

"You can say that all of us didn't have the prettiest deaths..." said Sakura. "But that's all in the past. No use crying over spilled milk! We have gotten over it and are enjoying our new lives!"

"So long as you're happy, then it's all right," said Peach, sounding a bit relieved that the zombie was still looking optimistic. "Okay, I'll tell my servants to bring over bandages in a moment."

"Thank you, princess!" said Sakura happily while bowing.

* * *

Ai had just finished wrapping herself up in new bandages provided to her by Peach's servants. While Tae slept and snored loudly on her bed, the other six zombies gathered together, sitting on two beds, to talk about everything that happened today. "Man! What a day! Still can't believe that all this real!" said Saki.

"I still can't believe that this whole another universe thing is real and that it happened to us of all people..." said Ai.

"I guess we truly are legendary! Haha!" commented Saki.

"I wonder if we'll be able to get back to our world..." said Junko, sounding worried. "Regardless of how good this place is, Tatsumi will be worried about us if he comes back and doesn't find us... I'm sure our fans will be worried that we've gone missing as well..."

"I'm sure the people here are working to help us get back home, so don't worry!" said Sakura, sounding optimistic.

"But assuming we get back later than Sir Tatsumi, how are we going to explain the situation to him?" asked Yuugiri. "Do you think he will believe our story so easily?"

"We'll just bring back stuff from this place world to use as proof," suggested Saki. "The more outrageous the better! He'll have to believe it one way or the other!"

"Also, the people of this world seems to taking the fact that we're zombies... quite well..." said Junko.

"Even so, you can see all the attention we were getting while out in town," said Ai. "I can tell that some of them are clearly afraid and not trusting towards us... Even if Mario and the princess have no problem with us, the same can't be said for the general public."

"I guess it's to be expected..." said Sakura. "Zombies exist in this world too, right? And apparently, they have a bad impressions..."

"Well, now that we're busted, there's nothing we can do but to roll with it," said Saki. "The most we can is to show them that we're not bad. Hopefully, it'll change their opinion towards us!"

"I still recommend that we put on makeups like back in our world," suggested Ai. "Looks can change people's view of you, so it's best that we look our best if we want them to have a good impression of us."

"I agree with Lady Ai," said Yuugiri with a nod.

"Guess we'll have to apologize for using a large of their makeups..." said Junko.

There was then a knock on the door, so Sakura got down from the bed and went to open it. There, she saw Peach and a blue Toad wearing glasses standing there. "May I help you, princess?" Sakura asked Peach.

"Sorry if I am interrupting you," Peach said to her. "You see, I told Toadbert here to look into the method you used for coming to our world, and he wants to share with you some of his findings, though he said it may not actually be of much help."

"It's all right. Any info right now is useful!" Sakura told her.

Toadbert and Peach then came into the room, and the former placed a book on one of the empty beds, while everyone else except Tae gathered around it to see what he had in store. "Okay, I tried looking into that warp pipe you girls told me about," Toadbert told them while flipping the book to a particular page that showed the drawing of a golden warp pipe that had rainbow-colored light coming out of its opening.

"That's the one we went into!" said Saki, pointing at said picture.

"Yes, people call it the Golden Pipe," said Toadbert.

"How original..." commented Ai in a sarcastic manner.

"Claims of this pipe's existence date back to millennia ago, but even so, nobody has been able to prove its existence," explained Toadbert. "This world is filled with all kinds of species, and it is believed by scholars that some of the species that exist now didn't originate in this world but actually came from other worlds after having gone through this pipe and arriving here. But like I said, there is no proof that such claims are true. Nobody even knows if this pipe exists!"

"Well, the fact that we are here proves that it does exist..." said Junko.

"Then you're probably the first people to prove its existence, but the point still stands that you didn't keep record of it that can be used as solid evidence," Toadbert told her. "I'm not saying that I don't believe you. I mean that if you were able to take a picture or record a video of it, then experts will be able to study it and find out something. Trust me when I said that this pipe is something that people have debated on, by boogity!"

"Sorry if we didn't have any kind of recording device with us that time..." said Ai.

"That's pretty much all I can find," said Toadsbert. "Sorry if it wasn't much help, though I still felt like sharing little of what I know with you. You asked E. Gadd to look into this, didn't you? He's a smart man, so I'm sure he'll find out something sooner or later. Mario also told me he asked Captain Toad to look into this. Captain Toad is an adventurer and archaeologist, so I'm sure he came across lots of ancient and secretive stuff in his travels. Surely he can look into this Golden Pipe for you girls!"

"That's great to hear! I'm sure we'll be able to get home fast if that's the case!" said Sakura happily.

"Any info is good, so we are still thankful that you provided us with this," Yuugiri said to Toadbert with a smile.

"I'm glad to be of help, then!" said Toadbert as he closed the book and adjusted his glasses. "I'll continue looking into this with some other experts and bring you more news! The Mario Brothers have taught me the importance of helping people, so by boogity, I will do everything I can to help you find this Golden Pipe!"

"We will definitely use all our resources to help you girls get back home, so don't worry!" Peach told the zombies. "In the meantime, please enjoy your stay here! I'm sure this experience isn't something you come across everyday, so you should take the opportunity to value it!"

"You bet we will!" said Saki with a large smile.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED


	5. Zombies' Day Out

When reviewing, I would appreciate it more if you leave behind full sentences commenting on certain things on the chapter rather than simply one or two words like "cool" or "great chapter." It's all right if you don't want to for whatever reason, but I would like it if you do so in order to let me know better what you think about certain aspects of the chapter.

This chapter contains a song, and because the original found on YouTube is sung by a male, you are to imagine that it's a girl singing when you come across that part in this chapter. Just read on and you'll see.

 **Chapter 5  
Zombies' Day Out**

* * *

The next morning, Peach came up to the door of the guest room the zombies were staying in. Knocking on the door, she asked, "Are you finished with your makeups yet?" The door then opened, and what she saw surprised her. "Wow!"

The seven zombies were currently dressed in casual clothing provided them by the servants, ones bearing pictures and brand names of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Sakura wore a white shirt with a Super Mushroom printed on it and a red skirt.

Saki wore an orange shirt that had a green Koopa shell printed on it and a pair of red knee-length shorts.

Ai wore a green shirt that had the words "Beauty Maniac" printed on it and a pair of blue shorts.

Junko wore a purple shirt that had a logo saying Coco Outfitters printed on it and a black skirt.

Yuugiri wore a yellow shirt with the logo Delfino Dream printed on it and a green knee-length skirt.

Lily wore a blue shirt with the picture of a Starman print on it and a pair of beige shorts.

Tae wore a black shirt with a Boo printed on it and a purple skirt.

The reason Peach was surprised by them was because they all had the same skin color as humans. They had previously asked for materials they could use for applying makeups on themselves, and Peach granted them their request. Seeing that they were currently indistinguishable from humans surprised her greatly.

"How'd we look?" asked Saki, looking proud.

"Wow! Amazing! I can't tell that you're zombies at all!" said Peach. "Those are some incredible makeup skills!"

"Our producer usually does this for us, but he also taught us how to do it ourselves," explained Ai.

"So this is how you are able to pass off as humans while back in your world?" asked Peach, and they nodded in response. "How about the clothes we provided you? Are they a good fit?"

Pulling her shirt a bit, Sakura replied, "They're great and comfortable to wear! Thank you, your majesty!"

"What are we going to do today?" asked Junko.

"Mario said he wants to guide you around town and show you all the fun stuff this place has," Peach told them.

"Will it really be all right for us to be wandering out there? The people already know about us..." said Ai, sounding worried.

"Don't worry; they won't do anything to you. Mario will make sure that doesn't happen," Peach assured her.

* * *

After the zombies had breakfast, Mario arrived at the castle. When he saw their current appearances, they were surprised. "Whoa! You look different!" he commented.

"Yeah, this is how we disguised ourselves back home," Saki told him.

Mario nodded with a smile. "I'm sure this will keep people from talking about-a you too much!"

The plumber led them out of the castle grounds and to Toad Town. Even with makeups on, the zombies were still recognizable to some of the people, so there were still gossips about them, albeit not as much.

"Hey, aren't those girls the zombies from yesterday?"

"They look different..."

"Probably used paint or something to disguise themselves as humans, but we can already tell... The faces are still the same!"

"If Mario and the princess are okay with them, then they should be fine."

"I'd still rather be cautious..."

Looking around nervously, Sakura said, "They can still tell it's us... And they're still scared..."

"At least they're not trying to kill us..." said Ai. "We just have to deal with it.

"Don't-a worry; they won't-a do anything," Mario assured them. "You're unda da protection of da princess, so they have no right-a to harm you. Give them a good-a impression, and they'll be okay with you! So... what-a shall we do first?"

Just then, his smartphone rang, so he picked it up and answered it. After saying a few things, he ended the call and said to the zombies, "Sorry, but business just-a called... I have to do plumbing business."

"Plumbing?" said Junko curiously.

Mario nodded. "Yes, I do plumbing work-a for a living most of da time. Luigi called me just-a now that a client has serious issues with da pipes in his basement, so he wants me to help. I'm sorry that-a I already promised to give you a tour around-a here..."

"It's all right. Please go and do your job. We can take it from here!" Sakura told him.

"I'll try to make-a eet up for you later," said Mario as he turned to leave. "Take-a care!" And he was off.

Saki looked at the others and said, "Well, this sucks, but it can't be helped... What are we gonna do?"

They looked around and noticed some signs nearby. Junko saw one of the signs and became rather excited. "They have a fishing spot here! Takes me back! Been a while since I went fishing!"

"Oh right, fishing is one of your hobbies," remembered Sakura.

The group headed together to the fishing area. It was a large lake with several people sitting at its edge, all of them with fishing rods. Some people caught nothing, while some caught fish, albeit not much. There was a stand nearby where the owner of the place was renting fishing rods and other equipment used for this activity.

Junko wasted no time in heading over there to rent some equipment. Each of the zombies were given some cash by Peach. After having rented the equipment, she headed over to an empty spot and sat down to begin fishing while humming happily. The others gathered around her, and Lily said to her, "Catch a big one for others to see! I know you can do it!"

"I got it!" shouted a Toad sitting not too far away. He pulled up his rod, which had a fish on its hook, only for said fish to escape immediately afterwards. "Curses!"

"Fishing is not an easy activity. It requires skill, patience, and dare I say, luck," said Junko in a serious tone without taking her eyes off the lake.

"Yeah, I can see that..." said Saki, looking at the Toad from earlier throwing tantrum almost childishly.

The group watched for several minutes, and nothing happened at all. Bored, Saki eventually said, "I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to stand or sit here all day waiting for fish to come to their deaths... I'd rather go out there and find something fun to do!"

"You don't have to stick with me if you don't want to," Junko told them. "Go ahead and enjoy yourselves. I can stay here by myself."

"You sure you'll be fine by yourself?" Sakura asked her.

Junko nodded. "Don't worry; what's the worst that can happen?"

The others then decided to go find something else to do and even split up if they wanted to, but with the promise that they'll meet up again later. Romero stayed behind with Junko, however.

* * *

Ai, Lily, and Yuugiri ended up traveling by themselves in their own small group. As they took a stroll through the place, they noticed an elderly Toad standing in front of a door to a building, and in front of him were two Toads, both of them carrying musical instruments. An electronic keyboard and a guitar to be precise. "What do you mean Chanterelle can't sing?!" said the elderly Toad in shock.

"She came down with a sickness and has sore throat..." one of the Toads told him. "She's currently resting and is in no condition to get up..."

The elderly Toad placed his hand on his mushroom cap in disappointment. "How can this be...? We're going to start performing in about thirty minutes... How can we find a solution to this in such a short amount of time...?"

"Excuse me... But I overheard your problem, so we were wondering if we could be of help?" asked a girl's voice. The three Toads looked up to see Ai standing there with Lily and Yuugiri.

"You heard right..." the elderly Toad said to her. "The famous singer Chanterelle was supposed to perform in this bar thirty minutes from now, singing a song written by me, the Master Poet... Yet, she fell sick all of a sudden... How am I going to find a replacement for her this soon?"

The three zombies looked at each other for a few seconds and then nodded with smiles on their faces. Ai turned to the Master Poet and asked him, "Do you have the lyrics to the song you've composed? I want to take a look at it."

The Master Poet was confused by her request, but nevertheless took out some papers and gave it to her. Ai took a few seconds to look through the lyrics, and then she said to the Toads, "Can you please play the music? I need to listen to it first."

"What are you doing, young lady?" Master Poet asked her.

"Since this Chanterelle person cannot sing, I will sing in her place," Ai told him. "I'll have to listen to the tune at least once before I know how to sing it."

"You're going to sing in place of Chanterelle?!" said Master Poet in surprise. "I'm not against it, but do you really have the skills to do so?"

"Don't underestimate an experience idol like me!" Ai said to him, sounding rather proud.

Master Poet nodded before telling the Toads to began playing the music on their instruments. They began playing, and Ai, Yuugiri, and Lily listened carefully to the tune being played. "Wow! It's so beautiful!" said Lily while rocking his body left and right a bit.

As Ai listened to the tune, she quietly sang the lyrics on the paper for herself to hear. After the music stopped, she said, "Okay, I get it now!"

"You sure? Did you really memorize the whole thing just by listening to it once?!" asked a surprised Master Poet.

"When did you say the performance is beginning again?" Ai asked him.

"In about thirty minutes," he replied.

Ai nodded. "That should be enough!" She then turned to Lily and Yuugiri. "Sorry if this is a bit sudden, but can you two dance while I sing?"

Lily nodded happily. "I was going to ask if you want us to do that!"

"I think this is a good idea as well!" agreed Yuugiri.

"You're going to dance as well?! Can you really come up with dance moves in just thirty minutes?!" asked Master Poet, even more surprised.

"Don't underestimate us!" Ai said to him with a smirk. "Anyway, you got a secluded place for us to practice?"

* * *

Even though not much time had passed since her companions left, Junko was already garnering attention from onlookers with the amount of fish she was catching. In fact, she had managed to catch the most fish among everyone present so far. Thanks to her slightly enhanced strength from being a zombie, she was able to reel in fish with little to no effort, even if they struggled intensely. The onlookers were amazed at how well she was performing.

"Wow! Look at this gal go!"

"She's good!"

"Did you see how she reeled them up so easily?! We all had to struggle a bit!"

Hearing all those praises made the zombie feel proud. Romero ate one of the fish she caught, so she scolded him.

Next to her was a young Toad who also tried his hand on fishing. He was able to catch a fish, but due to his size and strength, he had problems trying to reel it back. "I won't let you get away! You're mine!" He pulled as hard as he could, but in the end, the fish, a relatively big one at that, yanked so hard that he was pulled into the water with a splash.

Emerging from the water, he cried out while flailing his arms. "HELP! I CAN'T SWIM! HELP!" Meanwhile, the fish swam off with the fishing rod stuck to it.

Seeing this, the onlookers were horrified and began to panic.

"Oh no! A kid fell into the water!"

"What do we do?!"

"I can't swim either?!"

"Someone save him already!"

Junko looked in shock at the drowning child and wondered what to do while looking around. Seeing that nobody was in the right mind to do anything, the zombie didn't think twice before jumping into the water. Having taken swimming lessons when she was alive, she was able to get to the panicking Toad and grabbed hold of him. "Don't struggle!" she said to him as she wrapped her arms around him. "I'll pull you back up!"

The Toad continued to struggle a bit, though not as much as before, so Junko was able to swim back with him in her grasp and return to dry ground safely. The onlookers rushed forward, and some of them helped them up. His friends immediately rushed up to him to embrace him, asking him if he was all right.

"Thanks goodness you're all right, Todd!" one of his friends said to him.

"You had us scared!" said another one.

Eventually, the Toad's mother rushed over to embrace her son. "Todd! I heard what happened just now! Thanks goodness you're all right! I told you not to go near the lake!"

While everyone was seeing the rescued child, Junko realized that her makeup was washed off after jumping into the water. She was going to turn to run away when a little girl called out to her. "Big sis! Please wait a minute!" Junko then stopped to turn around to look at her. The young Toad holding a doll in her hand came up to her with a smile and said, "Thank you for saving my big brother, big sis!"

"You're... You're welcome..." said Junko nervously, though with a smile. She then heard the onlookers talking about her appearance.

"What's with her skin color?"

"Are those stitches on her body?"

"Isn't she one of those zombies who appeared in town yesterday?"

"It seems she was trying to disguise herself as a human just now."

Hearing this made Junko scared. She was convinced that the people were terrified of her appearance, so she felt like covering her face and run as far as she could. When the young Toad saw her expression, she asked her, "Big sis, why are you sad and scared? Is it because the people are talking about the way you look?"

Looking at her, the zombie replied, "It's no surprise... I'm... I'm a zombie... I look scary and... ugly... which is why I put on makeup earlier to keep people from seeing my true form... They will be scared if I don't..."

The Toad shook her head and smiled. "No, you look beautiful, big sis!" Hearing this made Junko surprised. "I'm not scared of you at all, big sis! You look very beautiful, so much that I want to be like you when I grow up!" She then held up the doll for the zombie to see. "You remind me of my favorite doll, big sis! See? It is old and sewn together with lots of different pieces of cloth, so it has many different colors, but despite this, I still love it and think it is very cute! Your appearance reminds me of this doll, and that is a good thing!"

The Toad Junko rescued, still soaking wet, came up to the zombie and said, "Thank you very much for rescuing me, big sis! And I think you look beautiful as well! In fact, I think you want to marry you when I grow up!"

Junko blushed and smiled when she heard this. "Thanks...!"

The mother then said to her, "Thank you for rescuing my son! How can I ever thank you? And please don't mind what other people are saying about how you look. Children are pure and honest, so if they think you look good, you do look good!"

"I'm glad to be of help...!" said Junko happily as she continued to blush. She then heard the sound of clapping, and when she looked around, she saw the onlookers clapping their hands and praising her for what she did earlier. Seeing this, her heart felt happy, but in a way that was different from the praises she received when doing idol work.

The young female Toad noticed that tears was running down the zombie's eyes, so she said to her, "You're crying, big sis. Here's a handkerchief for you!" She reached into her pocket and handed the zombie a piece of white cloth.

"Thank... Thank you!" said Junko happily as she used it to wipe her eyes.

* * *

Sakura, Saki, and Tae traveled as a group, arriving at a park filled with people, especially children. "What is there to do? What is there to do?" chanted Saki over and over with a bored face. Stopping to look around, she said, "I wonder if they have any delinquents and bikers around here. Curious on how they do things here!"

"You sure are attracted to those, aren't you...?" Sakura asked her with an unimpressed look.

"Just because I'm an idol now doesn't mean I've lost interest in my past life!" the blonde told her. As soon as she finished saying this, a soccer ball came flying in her direction, and she was able to catch it with ease. She saw three children calling out to her from a distance, asking for the ball back. Instead of simply throwing it back to them, she smiled as she went up to them. "Your ball?"

"Thanks, big sis!" said one of them as he took the ball from her.

"You playing soccer? Your number seems odd for this sort of game," Saki asked them.

The same child nodded. "Yeah, we're the only ones... One of us is the goalie, so we try to see which of us can try to kick it past him."

"Then I'll play ya!" Saki happily said to them. "You mind that?"

The kids looked at each other for a few seconds and then nodded. That kid then said to her, "Sure thing, big sis! You're welcome to play with us!"

"All right! Let's play!" said Saki as she rushed off with the children to play a simplified soccer with them.

Sakura and Tae watched from where they were, the former looked happy. "Nice of Saki to have found something to do!" said the former, and then she looked at Tae. "What do we do by ourselves, Tae?"

Tae began walking off on her own. Sakura decided to see what she would do, but at the same time stayed close to her to make sure she didn't cause trouble. She followed the mindless zombie in the direction of some children playing with action figures on the grass. The latter kept on moving in their direction, failing to see a rock on the ground that she kicked and tripped as a result. When Tae hit the ground, her head popped off just like that and tumbled into the midst of the children.

Sakura was shocked to see this, thinking the kids would freak out and run. However, one of the kids picked up the head, which stared back at him while making groaning sounds, and then approached the headless body of Tae that was getting up on all fours. "Is this yours?" he asked the mindless zombie.

Sakura ran up to the kid and took the head from him before putting it back onto Tae's body. "Don't be scared, kids!" the red-haired zombie said to them. "It's just a magic trick, that's all!"

"I know you! You're the zombies from yesterday!" pointed out one kid, which shocked Sakura.

"Really? Wow! That was an awesome trick just now!" said another one in excitement. "Is that something all zombies can do?"

"Um... Yeah..." replied Sakura, surprised that the kids weren't scared.

"It's just like my action figure!" said a kid holding up an action figure of a robot, which he proceeded to remove the head from. "See?" Seeing this, Tae grabbed and removed her own head, an act that made that shocked Sakura but amazed the kids. "Wow! That's wicked!"

Another one asked Sakura, "Can you do that as well?"

"Um... Yes, I can... But aren't you scared...?" a confused Sakura asked him, but he and his friends shook their heads. "All right, if you say so..." She grabbed her head, and after a couple of twists, removed it from her body. "See...?"

The kids jumped up and down in excitement when they saw this. As if in response to their reaction, Tae threw her own head high into the air and caught it when it fell back down, and the kids were excited just from seeing this.

"Wow... They're not scared at all! I didn't expect this!" thought Sakura, watching the excited kids.

"Hey, can you remove your arm as well?" asked another kid while tugging Tae's arm by the shoulder. After a couple of tugs, the arm came off and slipped out of her sleeves. The dismembered arm writhed around on the grass, a sight that amused the kids to no end. One of them then picked up the arm, whose hand then rubbed his mushroom cap in a playful manner and made him laugh.

As she watched the headless and one-armed Tae play with the children, Sakura smiled happily, knowing the fact they were zombies weren't instilling fear to them, but rather, joy. Wanting to join in on the fun, she called to the kids before throwing her head at them and telling them to catch it. They happily raised their arms to catch the incoming head.

* * *

Saki and the three children happily played soccer with each other. Two of the kids functioned as the goalie, while Saki and the third kid competed against each other. Even though she had the advantage due to her age, size, and strength, Saki intentionally held back to give the kid a chance. In fact, she occasionally allowed the kid to get the ball on purpose.

The kid, after getting the ball at one point, headed for the goal of Saki's side The goalie there got ready to catch it, but the kid kicked the ball so hard that it flew over him and into the distance. "Uh oh..." said that kid.

"Nice kick!" Saki said to him. "C'mon, let's go get it back before it goes too far!"

The group of four then headed where the ball went, and after a bit of searching, they came across a large red-shelled turtle wearing glasses standing in the middle of a road, and in his hand was the soccer ball. "That's our ball!" said one of the kids while pointing at it.

"Oh, this belongs to you?" asked the turtle. "I was wondering who kicked it into my head just now!"

"Please give it back to us," one of the kids pleaded him.

"I can, but you'll have to fork over 100 coins!" replied the turtle. "That's for hitting me with this thing!"

The kids were shocked to hear this, so they apologized to him over and over, but the turtle kept on insisting that they pay up if they want the ball back. This didn't sit well with Saki, so she stepped forward and said to him, "Hey you, give that ball back to those kids! They already apologized to you."

"Who do you think you are, telling me what to do?" the turtle said to her. "Can't you see that I am the one and only Kent C. Koopa?"

"I don't care who you are. Your attitude annoys me!" Saki said to him with an angry stare. "If you don't want to die, then you better give that ball back to the kids!"

The turtle simply laughed at her. "Ha! Me? Dying? In the hands of you? Right! That's too hilarious! What can a weak girl like you do?"

Hearing him calling her weak didn't sit well with Saki at all. As the zombie glared at him angrily, one of the children said to her, "It's okay, big sis... Kent C. Koopa is always like this... He never learns his lesson... We'll just go ask mom and dad to pay him..."

"No! I'm going to teach this guy a lesson if it's the last thing I do!" said Saki angrily while cracking her fists. "Just so you know, I've met and dealt with people like him before! In the end, I was the one laughing!"

Kent laughed at her again. "Hahaha! Then you've clearly haven't met me before! You think you can beat me in a fight? Try and take back the ball if you can! Don't say I didn't warn you!" He then lowered his head and pointed at his chin. "I'll let you have the first hit! Try your worst and hit me here!"

"You're asking for it!" said Saki angrily before giving the large turtle an uppercut to his chin. Surprisingly, the impact was strong enough to make Kent jerk back up and take a few steps back. The children were surprised to see this.

"Wow! Big sis actually hurt him!" said one of them.

Kent rubbed his chin and said, "Okay, that stung a bit..."

"Ha! How'd you like that?" Saki said to him, sounding proud.

"You think you're so cool just because of one hit? You still have a long way to go before you can do anything notable to me!" Kent to her.

"Then eat this!" shouted Saki before running towards him and then jumping into the air to attack him with a dive kick. However, Kent caught her foot and then flung her to the side, in the direction of a pond, which she fell into.

"Haha! Not so tough now, eh?" laughed Kent. Saki stepped back out of the pond, soaking wet and also with her makeup washed off, thus revealing her true form. Needless to say, this surprised the children and the large turtle.

Glaring at Ken with burning anger, the zombie said in a threatening voice, "You've really done it!" She then let out a cry of anger as she ran at Kent with one fist pulled back, and she slammed it hard at his body.

However, the underside of Kent's shell was a tough one, so when Saki's fist came in contact with it with, all her fingers ended up getting bent and twisted in unnatural directions. She pulled back her fist in shock and was immediately struck in the guts with a punch from the large turtle and sent flying backwards. She flew quite a bit of distance before coming to a skidding stop on her back.

Getting back up, Saki said in anger and frustration, "That actually stung a bit...!"

"Haha! Think you can still beat me?" Kent asked her from afar in a mocking tone. "Give it up already! And what are you anyway? What's with that dumb skin color?"

The children ran up to Saki as she readjusted her fingers back to normal. Glaring at Kent, she said, "Darn it! I won't let him get away with this!"

"Enough, big sis... You can't win against him..." one of the children said to her. "It takes someone like Mario to beat him, so don't burden yourself."

"Don't underestimate me! I'm the top delinquent and fighter back where I come from!" said Saki as she stood back up. "Even as a zombie, I won't let my reputation be ruined by some big fat turtle!"

She was going to make a move again when someone called out to her. "Hold up a sec!" it said. They turned to the source of the voice and saw three winged turtles with blue shells descending from their flight, which surprised Saki. They were all wearing shades.

"Who are you?" Saki asked them.

One of the turtles, who appeared to the leader, went up close to Saki and stared at her as if inspecting her. "Hmmm... There's been word about zombies running around in town yesterday," he said. "I'd take ya one of them?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Saki asked him. "What do you want? I'm in a bad mood, so you better choose your words and action carefully!"

"Trying to sound threatening, huh?" said the turtle. "Saw what you did just now, tryin' to fight Kent and take back da ball for da kids." He then poked his face close to her and stared at her for several seconds. Such an action actually freaked her out a bit. "That's a heck of a scar on ya face if I ever seen one!" He then looked at the bandages on her limbs. "I think I like ya... Ya some kind of punk in your past life or somethin'?"

"Yeah, the biggest and most badass delinquent you'll ever find!" said Saki, sounding proud.

"And I take that ya lived ya life to da fullest and died doing what you like doing best?" asked the turtle.

"Yep! I went down with a bang... literally!" replied Saki proudly.

The turtle gave her a thumb up. "Good! I like ya! I can already tell that you're the toughest woman I've met! Those eyes, scars, and bandages... They all tell me da kind of person ya are!"

"Hey! What are you doing there?" Kent called out to them. "Ya still trying to fight me? Or have you given up?"

"Why that jerk?!" said Saki angrily while rolling up her sleeve.

"Wait a sec," the turtle told her. "Kent C. Koopa is someone we have an issue with as well. Therefore, we will give ya somethin' ta fight him with!"

The other two flying turtles then carried a blue shell over and threw it at her without a word, and she was too late to react when it hit her. When the shell came in contact with her, it broke into pieces and instantly reformed itself around her so that it was now encasing her body, with her head and limbs sticking out of its five holes. "What the?! What is this?!" she asked in surprise.

"Use it ta take down Kent," the turtle leader said to her. "Don't underestimate da power of da blue shell! It might look like a hindrance, but it's actually somethin' awesome! Embrace it, feel it, be one with it! The power of da shell will be with ya!"

"Giving up already? Haha! I knew you were a wuss!" laughed Kent from a distance.

"That does it!" shouted Saki angrily before charging at the large turtle. Despite wearing a bulky shell, her speed didn't get hindered at all. As if she knew what to do, she jumped and somehow withdrew her head and limbs into the shell, which shot through the air like a cannonball fired from a cannon while spinning nonstop.

Seeing her approaching, Kent slammed down his hand onto the shell from above and pushed it onto the ground. "Ha! Pathetic!" he said. When he removed his hand, however, the shell suddenly slid forward at a fast speed, hitting him in the leg so hard that he was knocked into the air slightly and fell on his front with a thud. "Oof!"

Saki came back out of the shell and performed a back flip high into the air so that she was above Kent, and when she was above his head, she withdrew into the shell again and slammed down onto the top of his head, hitting it hard with her underside. His glasses also shattered as a result.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Saki bounced off him and landed in front of him before reappearing from the shell. "How'd ya like that?" she asked him.

Kent stood back up and felt his hands around the place. "How dare you?! My glasses! I can't see properly without them!"

"Sucks to be you, then!" she said to him.

"Argh! This isn't over yet! I'm going to get back at you again!" said Kent angrily before turning to run away as fast as he could, bumping into a tree once while doing so.

"And don't come back!" Saki yelled at him while shaking her fist at him.

The children and the flying turtles then came up to her. "Wow! You were awesome, big sis!" one of the children said to her.

Another held up the ball which Kent dropped after he was knocked to the ground by Saki the first time. "Thank you for getting back my ball, big sis!"

"That was nothing!" Saki said to them with a smirk. "Wait a minute..." She withdraw into the shell and then climbed out of it from the head's opening. After she exited the shell, it shrunk in size a bit. "As cool as this thing is, I don't really like the way I look when wearing it..." She then turned to the flying turtles. "No offense, by the way..."

"None taken, because your performance more than made up for it!" the turtle leader said to her, and the other two said the same, praising how well she performed earlier. "Ya got guts and strength, girl! That's da kind of woman I like!"

"Heh! Glad I amazed ya!" said Saki, sounding proud.

"And why ya go around hiding who ya are?" the turtle asked her. "Ya trying to hide how tough and cool ya look underneath all the paint?"

"Yeah! Ya should show off ya scars more!" said another one of the turtles. "Ya look awesome with those!"

"Well, my friends and I had to disguise ourselves as humans back home because the people are scared of zombies..." explained Saki. "Even though the folks here already found out, we thought we should still do the same in case our appearances are too revolting..."

"Away with that thought! If ya don't have to guts to be who ya are and let people know who ya are, then why be a zombie in da first place?" the turtle leader said to her while pointing at her. "Be proud of who ya are and show da people ya best side! If they cannot accept ya, then that's their problem! 'tis not da looks that matters, but how ya act that matters! Your performance has shown me that yar da best of da best! No doubt 'bout it!"

Looking at her bandaged limbs and the scar on her right hand, Saki said, "Maybe you have a point there!"

* * *

After they were done playing with the children, Sakura and Tae traveled through town again, looking for their friends and also something to do. Tae suddenly ran off on her own, so Sakura gave chase. "Tae! Don't run off on your own!"

It didn't take long for Tae to come across restaurant. She looked into one of the windows and drooled at the sight of the people in there eating. Sakura caught up with her and pulled her away from the window. "Don't do that, Tae! You'll spook the customers in there! If you want to eat something, let's go in there, and I'll buy you something. You must behave, okay?"

The two then went into the restaurant. Inside, there were several tables, but the most notable thing was a stage at the back of the place, and Ai, Lily, and Yuugir were standing on top of it, much to Sakura's surprise. "What are they doing there?!" she thought.

She could hear the people gossiping about who were those on the stage and also asked where someone named Chanterelle was.

Soon, the two Toads on the stage began playing their instruments, and then Ai began singing while Lily and Yuugiri began dancing in front of her.

 **Song  
** **Mario Kart 7 Rainbow Road (Magic Road)  
** **(by Dave Does Music)**

 _Come and hear the legend_  
 _Of a magic land_  
 _Some men say it's better than heaven_  
 _A place of joy and perfection_  
 _Crafted by God's hand_

 _Everyone who goes there_  
 _Falls upon their knees_  
 _'Cause no man would ever believe it_  
 _Until the first time they see it_  
 _All of its beauty_

 _On Rainbow Road you can fly at the speed of light_  
 _Happily, without a care_  
 _On Rainbow Road you will be zooming across the nighttime skies_  
 _Just close your eyes_  
 _And you're there_

As Ai sang, Lily and Yuugiri pulled off slow but graceful-looking dance moves of waving their arms and bodies around and making occasional twirls. Ai herself also danced, though her movements were minimal and somewhat different from those two.

All the while, the customers commented about how good Ai's singing was and also the dance moves of those two zombies. Sakura watched with a large smile on her face, feeling proud that her companions were able to please the customers.

 _Colors bright above you_  
 _Earth below agleam_  
 _They instill a great sense of freedom_  
 _Because where else would you see them_  
 _Other than a dream?_

 _Shooting stars surround us_  
 _Spaceships, planets too_  
 _All these sights, they always astound us_  
 _And all the wonders around us_  
 _I give them to you_

 _On Rainbow Road you can fly at the speed of light_

 _Happily, without a care_

 _On Rainbow Road you will be zooming across the nighttime skies_  
 _Just close your eyes_  
 _And you're there_

 _On Rainbow Road you can fly at the speed of light_  
 _Happily, without a care_  
 _On Rainbow Road you will be zooming across the nighttime skies_  
 _Just close your eyes_  
 _And you're there_  
 _And you're there_

 **Song Ends**

With that, the performance ended. The customers immediately burst into a round of applause, praising those on stage nonstop. Even the restaurant staff were clapping. Lily happily waved at them and thanked them over and over for enjoying their performance.

"Wow! That was awesome!"

"Bravo!"

"I can't believe how good it is!"

At the side, the Master Poet was in tears of happiness. "This is so beautiful!" he said. "Much better than I've hoped for!"

As Ai, Lily, and Yuugiri enjoyed the praises they were receiving, someone suddenly shouted, "I know them! They're those zombies from yesterday!" The three were shocked to hear this, including Sakura.

"Who cares? That was still a spectacular performance!" said another person.

"Yeah! I love it!" said yet another one.

Despite some of the people knowing that they were zombies, they continued to clap their hands and cheer for them. Hearing this, the three on stage were relieved. "Phew.. For a second, I thought they were going to throw things at us..." said Lily.

"A good performance can change a person's mind!" said Yuugiri.

Thinking that this was a good opportunity, Ai stepped forward with her microphone and said out loud, "Everyone, nice to meet you all! We are from an idol group known as Franchouchou! As you may know, we are zombies, but we want you to know that we do not mean any form of harm to you! In fact, we enjoy making people happy with our singing and dancing! What you saw just now is just a little of what we are capable of, and we only got thirty minutes to practice! Given more time to practice, we will be able to pull off more amazing performances to you all!

"I know some of you may have negative opinions towards us because of what we are, but please, give us a chance! We will show you that we are not bad people and that we enjoy bringing happiness and smiles to each and all of you!"

Hearing this, the people clapped their hands loudly and happily, some of them shouting for encore and also for more performances from them.

"Wow! This is great!" said Sakura happily with her hands clasped. "This may really change the people's opinion towards us, even though we're zombies!"

"Hey! This is mine! Get your own!" cried a Toad sitting on a nearby table while trying to keep Tae away from his food.

"Tae! Stop it!" cried Sakura as she desperately rushed over to pull her away.

* * *

Later that day, all the zombies were reunited, and a soaking wet and dirty Mario met them at the place he parted ways with them. Noticing that Junko and Saki were no longer in their makeups, he asked them what happened and if everything was all right. They happily replied that they had a great day, despite their makeups getting washed off. "Glad-a to know that you enjoyed things!" Mario said to them. "Sorry about-a today... To make-a up for eet, I've decided to take-a you to kart racing tomorrow!"

"Racing? Wow! Really?!" asked Saki, sounding excited.

Mario nodded. "Eetz one of most popular activities here in the Mushroom Kingdom. Every year, we have a huge kart racing competition, but when the competition isn't active, some people still do eet for fun!"

"Sounds cool!" commented Lily.

"Do you use only karts? Do you have motorcycles?" Saki asked Mario.

Mario nodded. "Yes! You can use motorcycles to race as well!"

"All right! I'm in!" said an extremely hyped Saki. "This is going to be fun!"

"I guarantee you eetz going to be a really special experience for you!" Mario told her with a smile.

"By the way, looks like you had a rough time with your job..." Ai said to Mario.

Mario nodded with a frown. "You can say that... That-a person had a swimming pool in hiz basement, eef you know what I mean..."

* * *

That night, the zombies were back in their guest room. Junko was seated on her bed, looking at a handheld mirror while humming happily. "You seem to be a in good mood," Ai, who was on the bed next to hers, said to her, "You're in a good mood, aren't you?"

"You know, when I first saw myself after becoming a zombie," Junko said to her without looking away from the mirror, "I was horrified by my own appearance. All the different colors as a result of different skins sewed together... I was a like monster, a freak of science... I couldn't stand the fact that this was now my new appearance. While our makeups did make me look better, I was still saddened by the fact that I had to put on a false appearance in order to look beautiful, whereas the real me is something that can never be associated with the word beautiful."

As Junko was saying this, Ai noticed tears starting to form from her eyes. "But today..." the former continued, "some people said something to me after seeing my true form... Something I thought I would never hear... Despite my supposedly terrifying appearance... They said I... They said..." More tears started to drop from her eyes, but rather than looking sad, she had a smile on her face. "They said I'm beautiful...! One of them even said he would happily marry me!"

As Junko continued to cry, Ai sat down next to her and patted her back. "That's good! It's nice to have someone appreciate the way your real looks!"

"Yeah, we should embrace our real looks more!" said Saki as she approached them. "Met some folks who love the way I look! My scars and my bandages! They all instill a sense of coolness to them!"

"When Tae and I removed our heads, the children weren't scared at all!" said Sakura as she came over. "It seems that people here are taking us as zombies rather well!"

"I guess that's because the people here are used to seeing weirdness," said Ai. "I don't think the same can be said for the people back in our world..."

"Hey, you won't know until we try!" said Saki.

Looking at the blonde, Ai asked "Are you suggesting that we expose ourselves as zombies when we go back...?"

"Face it; sooner or later, our facades are going to get busted!" Saki told her. "People are going to suspect us when we don't age over the years! I don't know what shades has in store for us in the future, but if he thinks he can keep this act up forever, then he's clearly out of his mind! The world is gonna know it sooner or later!

"It's not the look and what we are that matters, it's a matter of how we act! Didn't you all do things that impressed people, even though they know we're zombies? This is proof that so long as we act in ways that give good impressions, the people will continue to love us! Even back in our world, as long as our fans continue to support us, I'm sure they'll definitely be okay with us being zombies!"

"Easy for you to say... I'm not very convinced our world can take this news so easily as the folks here," said a skeptical Ai. "Let's just leave things to Tatsumi and see how things go. Whatever the case is, we shouldn't rush things."

"Trust me! I have the feeling that everyone will be all right with it!" said Saki with confidence before returning to her bed.

Sakura thought about what she heard. She knew it was true they couldn't keep up their facades forever back in their world, and she didn't know what Kotaro had in mind for the future. All he ever said was that he knew what he was doing and that they shouldn't worry about this. She thought of the possibility of the people back in their world finding out that they were zombies and still loving them. Initially, she was scared at the thought of being exposed, but after the experience today, such a thought started to disappear, and she was somewhat convinced that it might actually work.

Not wanting to think too much anymore, she decided to let things go their way first. As she walked back to her own bed, she noticed Lily on his bed playing a handheld gaming device. "What are you playing, Lily?" she asked him. She went over to him and saw him playing a video game consisting of a series of short and fast-paced games lasting only about five seconds each.

"One of the servants lend it to me," he replied while playing the game. "It's called WarioWare Gold."

"Is it fun?" she asked him.

"Pretty cool and unique!" he replied. "I wonder what sort of person came up with this idea."

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Many of the characters in this chapter actually aren't original characters. With the exception of the child named Todd, all the others are actual characters from the games. Kent C. Koopa, the Master Poet, and Chanterelle are all from the original Paper Mario, while the flying turtles whom you know as Paratroopas are actually the Koopa Paratroopa Trio from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

Similarly, the brand names on the shirts of the zombies are actual brand names found in the Mario Kart games.

Anyway, one thing I really want to happen in a potential second season is for the zombie reveal to happen. It's going to get old if Franchouchou keeps on hiding the truth from the public, not to mention that it's also impossible to keep up the facade forever. Let's pray that the second season gets greenlit soon!


	6. Enter Wario

Turns out making a reaction story is harder than it looks... I'm still working on the ZLS reaction story, and I cannot be sure when it will be done. Please be patient.

And once again, I **DO NOT TAKE STORY REQUESTS**! Please stop telling me what stories to make! I'm talking about the person who told me to make a ZLS and Backstreet Girls crossover and whose review I deleted because of that. You are not getting that story made by me!

 **Chapter 6  
** **Enter Wario**

* * *

The next morning, Franchouchou was at a park, waiting for Mario to show up, as he told them to wait there for him to come take them to go kart racing. With the exception of Junko and Saki, the zombies once again had makeups on. The other two said they had no issue not putting on their makeups after what happened yesterday. As they waited at a bench, Lily continued playing the handheld game from yesterday.

They were all wearing the same outfits as yesterday.

"Man, Mario sure is taking his time..." said Saki impatiently with her hands on the back of her head while tapping the ground. "I want to go kart racing already!"

"I'm sure he's still trying to fix the pipes of the house from yesterday," Sakura told him. "He did say the basement was badly flooded, so that should a while to fix... I think..."

"Hey look! It's those girls from yesterday!" a Toad called out from a distance, and then he and his companion approached them. "Mind if my pal and I take a pic with you?"

"Sure!" Saki happily said to him while approaching him. She got in between the two Toads and placed her arms around their shoulders, and one of them took out his smartphone to take a selfie of all three of them.

"Thanks a bunch!" said one of the Toads happily. "I think you look the coolest, by the way! That blonde hair partially dyed at the front, the scars, and the bandages! Those all exude coolness!"

"Glad ya like me!" Saki happily said to him, and then the both of them fist bumped each other. After the two Toads left, she turned to her companions and said to them, "See? They love me despite how I look!"

"Good for you!" said Junko happily.

"Trust me; I'm sure this will work back in our world!" said Saki with confidence.

"I wouldn't be so sure..." said a skeptical Ai.

Just then, they all heard the sound of engine approaching. Saki was especially curious about it, because due to her experience as a biker, she could tell immediately that it was the sound of a motorcycle.

"Out of the way!" shouted a loud and angry-sounding voice as the sound grew louder and louder. The zombies looked and saw people getting out of the way of a yellow motorcycle traveling down the park road, and seated on it was a obese man dressed like a typical biker.

He wore a blue vest over a dark blue undershirt and a pair of pink jeans, and on his head was a yellow hat with goggles wrapped around it. He had a large, pink nose and a moustache resembling the letter "w."

Upon seeing the design of the motorcyle, Saki leaned forward with excitement as her eyes sparkled. Looking at her, Ai said under her breath, "Why am I not surprised...?"

The obese biker drove his motorcycle onto the grass and turned sideways to come to a skidding stop right on top of a flower patch that had a sign next to it telling people not to vandalize them. The zombies watched as the man got down from the motorcycle and stretched his limbs while yawning.

"That outfit! That's how Western bikers tend to dress!" said Saki with excitement while pointing at that man.

"You mean you never dressed like that before?" Sakura before.

Saki shook her head. "Nah, Dorami's outfits look different. We had our own style, though Western biker outfits still impressed me!"

He then walked off the grass while scratching his butt, heading in the direction of a billboard that had a couple of announcements on it. On the billboard was also a poster of Mario with text underneath saying _Man of the Year! Who else were you expecting?_

The obese man looked at the poster with an unimpressed look and said, "Man of the year? More like doofus of the year!" He then reached into his pink jean's pocket and took out a black marker. "Good thing I brought this marker with me for no apparent reason beforehand! Now it finally has a use!" He laughed as he drew a beard on the poster of Mario and also devil horns on his head.

"What's that guy doing...?" commented Lily with a rather displeased look.

A coin then rolled over to where the man was, stopping when it hit his foot. He noticed it and thus picked it up, but grumbled about how it was worth only one coin. A Toad then came up to him and told him that it was his coin and wanted it back.

However, the man glared at him with an angry and intimidating face. The Toad stared at him and gradually became nervous before finally walking away while saying that it was only one coin, so it was no big loss. The man then chuckled as he put the coin into his pocket.

The zombies saw this and didn't like the way he acted just now. "Such a foul act!" said Yuugiri with a disapproving look.

"Yeah! Even Dorami wouldn't stoop as low as him!" said Saki angrily. "Someone ought to teach him a lesson!"

The man turned his head in their direction and seemingly noticed something before heading towards them. The zombies were surprised that he was coming towards them and became cautious. Ignoring all the other zombies, Wario walked up to Lily, who was holding the handheld gaming device in his hands, and asked him, "What game are you playing, kid?"

Lily looked at him nervously and replied, "Wa... WarioWare Gold..."

Wario then snatched the game console from to look at the game. "Oh yeah, it's the game my company made!" Hearing him say this made the others surprised. "Ya enjoying it, kiddo?"

"Yeah..." replied Lily, still looking nervous.

"Ha! Of course you would enjoy it! The games my company made are the best in the world after all! You have to be a fool to not enjoy them!" said the man happily. "And it's also not everyday you get to meet the chairman of WarioWare Incorporated, so I'm-a gonna give you an autograph! What better place to get an autograph than on your shirt?"

Taking out his marker, the man forced Lily up by the shoulder, spun him around, and began scribbling on his back, but the young zombie protested, saying that he didn't ask for this. Before the man could finish signing his name, Saki pulled him away and said to him angrily, "You leave my friend alone!"

The man glared at her and said, "Or else what? What's wrong with giving her a little autograph?"

"She doesn't want it, so don't force it onto her!" Saki said to him. "And as a former biker, what I saw you did pissed me off! Don't you have any manners and ethics? Vandalizing things and stealing from people! How low can you get?"

"Screw you! I can do whatever I want!" the man angrily said to her while removing her hand from his clothes. "And don't you know who I am ? Show your respects to someone important, girly!"

"I don't care who you are!" Saki said to him.

As the two bickered with each other, the other zombies looked worried and feared that things would escalate. "What do we do...? We should stop them!" said Sakura.

Ai, however, said something else. "Did you notice that this person doesn't seem to be fazed by Saki's appearance at all? It's more like... he didn't notice anything at all..."

As Saki and the obese man continued to bicker with each other, there was a suddenly a loud stomp. They both turned to the side and saw a large turtle standing there. Looking down at Saki, Kent C. Koopa said, "Found you!"

"Oh, you're the one from yesterday," said Saki, looking unfazed.

"Thanks to you, I had to waste a few bucks on getting a new pair of glasses, so now I'm going to beat you up and take all your cash to make up for it!" said Kent angrily while cracking his fists.

"You want another round? Fine! I'll take on you!" said Saki as she cracked her fists as well.

"Out of the way, ugly!" the man said to the turtle rudely. "I have a bone to pick with her, and I'm not letting anyone interfere!"

"She's mine to deal with! If you want to steal my prey, then you're my target as well!" Kent said to him in an intimidating tone.

Wario pushed Saki away as he turned to Kent and said to him in an equally intimidating tone, "You want to have a rotten day?"

"You're the one who's going to have a rotten day!" said Kent angrily before throwing a punch at him, but to his and everyone else's surprise, the man caught the fist with his hand and stopped it dead in its tracks. He then squeezed the fist before twisting Kent's arm, making the turtle cry in pain.

Saki and the other zombies backed away from them in surprise, and what the man did next surprised them even more, not to mention everyone at the scene at the moment. Using only one hand, the man let out a cry as he lifted Kent's massive body into the air and slammed him onto the ground hard, so much that the area shook a bit. Still using one hand, the man began spinning Kent in circles at a fast speed, and the turtle cried in terror as he was spun through the air.

After spinning multiple times, the man let go of Kent, causing the latter to be flung into the distance at a fast speed. The turtle screamed at the top of his voice as he went flying through the air and eventually crash landed violently somewhere in the distance.

Bending and twisting his fingers and hand, the man said, "I told ya you're going to a rotten day!" He then turned to look at Saki and said, "Now... where were we?"

To say that the zombies were shocked by what they saw was an understatement. They were completely mind blown by the incredible feat of strength the man displayed just now. "How... How did you... do that...?!" Saki asked him with widened eyes.

"Ha! Amazed and scared? With muscles like mines, you can do something like that!" said the man proudly while flexing one arm.

"Wario!" shouted someone. They looked turned to see Mario arriving at the scene, and accompanying him was Luigi and a Toad. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah! If it isn't my eternal rival Mario!" said the man named Wario, spreading out his arms as if welcoming his presence.

"They know each other...?" said Ai curiously.

Mario approached Wario with a look of disapproval and said to him, "I saw what-a you did just-a now! Was that-a necessary?"

"He was asking for it!" Wario said to him. "I was just gonna pick a fight with his girl here when he interfered, so I taught him a lesson about stealing people's fun!" He said while pointing at Saki with his thumb.

"You're not allowed to lay a friend on her and her friends!" Mario said to him. "They are unda my protection and also da princess's!"

"Who is he, Mister Mario?" Sakura asked the plumber.

"He's Mario's childhood friend and also rival," replied Luigi. "Wario neva really gets along with Mario and eez constantly trying to compete against him. He doesn't live in Mushroom Kingdom, so seeing him here is quite unexpected, though eet'z not like he neva came here before..."

"He also said his company made this game I was playing," said Lily, showing Luigi the game WarioWare Gold.

"Yeah, that's true," said Luigi with a nod. "Wario is the CEO of WarioWare Incorporated, a widely successful video game company."

"He may not look like it, but Wario is one of the richest people in the world," added the Toad, and the zombies were surprised to hear this. He has a high-pitched, screeching voice.

Wario laughed proudly when he heard this. "Haha! Ya heard that right! Very few people can compete with me in riches! I've earned my profit through treasure hunting, video game manufacturing, and gold mining! Yes, I operate a gold mining business too!"

"He also bought an entire mountain and named it after himself," added the Toad with an unimpressed look. "Just so he can use it as his personal ski resort and also a go-kart race track..."

"Surprised, huh? Funny how you didn't recognize me right away!" Wario said to the zombies. He then took out his wallet and pulled out a card from it. "Here's my business card! Take it!" Using two fingers, he threw the card at Saki in a cool-looking manner. However, the card ended up floating onto the ground, as it was made of paper, albeit the hard kind.

Wario stared at the card for a while before picking it up and trying to throw it at Saki again using the same method, only to get the same result. He growled in frustration as he picked it up and attempted the third time, only to get the same result yet again. Wario picked it up again and this time slapped it onto her hand. "Here! Take it!"

The other zombies gathered around Saki to look at the business card, which displayed Wario as the founder and CEO of the video game company WarioWare Incorporated, located in Diamond City. "Looks like he's telling the truth," said Saki.

"They're zombies who come from another world through a special warp-a pipe," Luigi told Wario. "That's why they don't-a know you."

"Zombies? What are you talking about? They look pretty normal to me!" said Wario, surprised by what he heard.

"Um... Some of us have makeups on that make us look human, so I can understand that you can't tell that we're zombies by looking at us..." Ai said to him, and then she pointed at Junko and Saki, "but these two don't have makeups on, and you couldn't tell?"

Wario looked at those two and narrowed his eyes. "Other than being gray-skinned, they look pretty normal to me... How are they supposed to look anything like zombies anyway?"

"Are you dense or what...?" asked an annoyed Saki.

"How about you just admit that you're bad at making yourself look like a zombie, assuming you are really one?" Wario said to her. "The ones I met look more like actual zombies than you ever will!"

"You've met zombies before?!" asked Junko in surprise.

Wario nodded. "Yeah, ugly folks who terrorized me while I was out treasure hunting! They actually infected me and turned me into one of them, thinking they can make me one of them! I proceeded to beat them up with my newfound zombie powers before changing myself back to normal with some water and sunlight!"

"Water and sunlight...?" said Ai curiously.

"Yeah? Don't you know? That's the cure for if you get turned into zombies! Try it out if you want to change back to normal!" Wario told her.

"I don't think that'll work on us, because we've got into water before, and we're currently standing under the sun..." Sakura told him. "We didn't become zombies because we got bitten by one. We all died and got brought back to life... somehow..."

"Huh? That's new to me..." said Wario. "Aren't you girls a bit too young to be dying? They say only old people die! What sort of stupid stuff ya girls did to get yourself killed?"

The zombies felt offended that Wario called out on them in such an offensive manner. "Sorry to break it to ya, but I went out in a badass way!" Saki told him. "Drove myself off a cliff playing a game of chicken! It takes a lot of guts to do something like that!"

"Sounds pretty stupid to me!" said Wario, not looking impressed while picking his nose. "I never played that before, but assuming I did, I'd survive it no problem." He then turned to Junko asked her, "How'd you die?"

"Uh... Plane crash..." she nervously replied.

Wario laughed. "Haha! Sucks to be you! Let me tell you about how I've been through two plane crashes and survived both with barely any injuries to tell the tale!" Junko was surprised to hear this.

"I don't know about one of them, but assuming the other one is what I think it is, then that doesn't count!" the Toad said to him. "You simply crashed into a tree shortly after taking flight! Anyone can survive that!"

"I'd like to see you survive that, then!" Wario said to him. He then pointed at Sakura. "You a zombie too? How'd ya die?"

"Uh... I... got hit by a truck..." she replied.

"Truck? That's it? Bah! I got hit by a train and am still standing here, boasting about it!" said Wario proudly. "All it did was sent me high into the air, and I came crashing back down, only to stand back up a second later like nothing happened!"

Sakura was surprised to hear this. "How is that possible?!"

"If I don't feel like dying, I ain't dying!" he claimed.

Yuugiri turned to Mario and asked him, "Are all his claims true?"

"I don't-a know everything, but I do know that Wario eez a very tough guy who can endure almost everything you throw at-a him," he replied.

Suddenly, Wario's smartphone rang, its sound being that of Wario laughing in a mocking manner. He took it out from underneath his biker vest and answered it. "Hello?"

"Wario!" said a young woman's voice. "Shouldn't you be back in Diamond City by now? You said you were going to pay us once you get back! Where are you?"

"Sorry, Mona, but I think you've called the wrong number," replied Wario. "I don't know who this Wario is."

"Then how do you know my name? You can't trick me, Wario! I'm not a fool!" said the woman on the other side.

Without saying anything else, Wario placed the smartphone in front of his butt and let loose a loud fart, a move that disgusted the others. "I can hear you farting into the phone!" said the woman in the phone angrily. "Wario! Did you hear me?!" He ended the phone while she was in the middle of ranting angrily.

With an unimpressed look, Mario asked him, "Let-a me guess... You're not-a paying your employees again?"

"I told them I would pay them once I get back from the boring business conference I went to in Mushroom City," replied an annoyed Wario while putting his phone away.

"Oh, is that why you came here?" Luigi asked him.

"The conference finished, but I decided that I've got time to spare and so came here to pay you folks a visit," explained Wario.

"We were just-a going to take them to go kart racing," Mario told Wario.

Wario became intrigued and said, "Ooh, sounds fun! Haven't done one since last years annual kart race! I won't mind tagging along!"

"Suit-a yourself," said Mario with a shrug.

The Toad then turned to the zombies and stretched out his hand, "By the way, I haven't introduced myself to you yet. I'm Toad! Nice to meet you!"

Sakura shook his hand and said, "Nice to meet you, Mister Toad!"

"Wait a minute... Isn't Toad what your species is called...?" asked Ai.

Toad nodded. "Yes, but it's also my name."

"'Isn't that an odd name...? That's like naming a dog dog..." said Ai.

"I don't know how things are in your world, but it's pretty normal here," replied Toad.

"Wait a minute... We were told that Mario asked someone named Captain Toad to look into the pipe that brought us here," said Junko. "Are you Captain Toad?"

Toad shook his head. "No, that's someone else. We simply share the same name. It's normal for different people to have the same names, right?"

"I guess..." said Junko.

* * *

 **BGM: Mushroom City & Mushroom Bridge (Mario Kart: Double Dash)**

Not too long afterwards, Mario, Luigi, and Toad took Franchouchou onto a bus to head for what the former said was the stadium for the kart racing. Wario also followed them on his bike.

As he traveled alongside their bus, the fat man stood up on his bike's seat and looked at them while giving number three signs on both hands. "Haha! Bet you can't do this!" he said to them pridefully.

Saki looked at him with an annoyed look and said, "Just you wait...! I'll do it when I have the chance!"

Sakura, who was sitting next to her, asked, "You never pulled off any stunt like that in your biker days?"

Saki begrudgingly replied, "No..."

As they approached a large bridge, Wario went up ahead of the bus while driving to the side. Instead of simply driving across the bridge, he drove up the beam on the left side, much to the surprise of those in the bus. "Mamamia! He sure is reckless!" commented Mario.

"That's traffic violation, isn't it...?" asked Lily.

"Well, this bridge wuz used as a racetrack before during da kart competition," explained Luigi. "At that-a time, racers were allowed to go up da beam, but in da subsequent years, that-a path wuz became banned due to accidents happening. It was easy to fall off from da top. Nobody died, but there were still pretty bad injuries..."

Suddenly, they all heard screaming as Wario and his bike were seen falling from the beam and towards the pavement below, much to their horror. He fell in front of the bus, and even before he hit the pavement, the bus crashed into him with a powerful impact that left a crack on the windshield and shook everyone on board. Some of them, mostly women, screamed in terror.

All eyes were wide open in horror as Wario and his bike fell back from the windshield and collapsed onto the pavement.

"Is... Is he dead...?!" Sakura asked while trembling violently due to having PTSD of her death from what she witnessed just now.

"Watch where you're driving!" shouted Wario as he stood back up all of a sudden while rubbing his head, much to everyone's surprise.

"Excuse me?! You're the one who came falling down from the sky right in front of me, and you're saying it's my fault?!" the bus driver, who is a Toad, angrily said to him.

Franchouchou were completely stunned by the fact he was still alive and even able to stand back up properly after what happened. "How... How is he still alive...?!" asked Sakura.

"Is he secretly a zombie...?" asked Ai.

After Wario was done arguing with the bus driver, he picked up his bike and checked to see of it was still working. Despite what happened, it was still working, so he got on it and then drove off while looking back and shaking his fist at the bus driver angrily.

Everyone continued to remain stunned and in silence, thinking about what just happened.

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

After changing into a new bus, as the previous one was deemed too dangerous to use due to its broken windshield, they finally came to their destination. Stepping down from the bus along with his friends, he pointed at a large stadium in front and said, "Here we are! Da MK Stadium!"

The zombies looked at the stadium with impressed looks, and Saki asked, "This is where we will be racing?"

"When da competition eezn't, then there eez really da only place available for racing," explained Luigi. "Otherwise, several otha places are renovated to become racetracks."

They see Wario approaching them. "Took you long enough! I already ate two chili hotdogs and drank a large cup of soda and also took a huge dump before you've finally showed up!" he said to them.

"You feeling all right?" Mario asked him in concen. "I mean from da accident on da bridge..."

"Ha! It'll take a lot more than that to put me down!" said Wario, sounding proud.

"You sure you're not secretly a zombie...?" Ai asked him.

"Don't compare me to you folks' feeble bodies that can't take a hit!" said Wario while pointing at her. "I don't need to become one to survive accidents like that! And besides, the last time I went to a doctor was after my encounter with zombies, and he said I'm healthy as heck! He would've noticed something if I was still a zombie! And also, I looked more like an actual zombie than you wannabes will ever be!"

"Lily doesn't see how being a cute zombie is a bad thing," said Lily.

They all then headed into the stadium. Inside, they saw various memorabilia related to kart racing. There were trophies and medals on display and also models of go karts and motorcycles, some life size and some as small as toys.

Saki looked around in amazement and said, "I'm liking what I see already!"

"It's more crowded when the competition is on," said Toad.

The group decided to tour the place first. Sakura approached photos of various racetracks on the wall and noticed something odd about them. Many of them had loops and tracks slanted at angles that look impossible for anything to stand on or even move on.

Mario approached her, so she asked him, "Why are the racetracks designed like that? How are you supposed to drive on them?"

"Simple! Using anti-gravity wheels!" replied Mario.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

This chapter has quite a few references to the games, as mentioned below:

Mushroom City is a racetrack in Mario Kart Double Dash. The bridge they were on is Mushroom Bridge, also a racetrack in Double Dash. You can drive up the bridge's beams in DD, but when the track returned in Mario Kart DS, you couldn't, which is referenced by Luigi here that they later banned going up there.

The mountain Toad said Wario bought is referring to Mount Wario from Mario Kart 8. Similarly, Wario's claim of owning a gold mine is a reference to Wario's Gold Mine in Mario Kart Wii.

The plane crashes refer to the ending of Wario's Woods and the intro of Wario Land 3. Toad was talking about the former when he said that one doesn't count as a plane crash. Getting hit by a train refers to the ending of WarioWare Touched.

Wario's ringtone is the pause screen music from Wario World.

Zombies appear as enemies in Wario Land 2 and 3, where they are capable of turning Wario into one.

Supposedly, either the Japanese version WL2 or 3's instruction manual has Wario saying the reason he can't die as a gameplay mechanic is because he doesn't feel like dying, thus he cannot die.

I think that should be all. Anyway, we're going full Mario Kart 8 next chapter, so stay tuned! And in case you can't wait to find out, not all the zombies will be racing.


	7. Let the Race Begin!

**Chapter 7  
Let the Race Begin!**

* * *

"Anti-gravity wheels?" said Sakura curiously.

"Indeed," said Mario with a nod. "They are specialized wheels designed for traveling on any surface, defying the laws of physics and gravity completely. Eet'z something you have to see to believe!"

"Sakura! You've got to see this!" Saki suddenly called out to the red-headed zombie. She turned to her blonde companion and saw her and the others watching a recorded footage of a race on a television. She went over there to see that they were watching a race of Mario and some other people racing on different kinds of go-karts and motorcycles.

What was special about this footage was that the wheels of those vehicles looked like flying saucers, spinning horizontally underneath the bodies and thus allowing the racers to travel on walls and even upside-down, yet nobody fell off their seats at all. The zombies watched in awe at the racers speeding through twisted roads and loops. There were even moments where the racers drove off ramps and soared into the air above large chasms, and then gliders appeared above them to help them safely reach the other side.

They also noticed the racers driving through colorful boxes as if the latter was made of paper and was later seen throwing items of various kinds at each other.

"Wow! Looks like a lot of fun!" said Saki with sparkling eyes.

"How are they moving on walls and even upside-down...?" asked a confused Junko.

"Anti-gravity technology," replied Toad. "Using specialized wheels and specialized tracks, the vehicles are able to defy gravity and travel on all sorts of terrain. Special devices are also attached to the drivers so that they will be affected by the anti-gravity effect too in order to not fall off. I take that you don't have something like that back in your world?"

"At least not in real life... This is something only found in science fiction shows," said Ai. "I'm amazed that your world managed to perfect this technology already!"

"And what's with throwing stuff at each other anyway?" asked Lily.

"That's one of the things we do in the race," explained Luigi. "You break-a item boxes to obtain items and weapons you can use against otha people, hindering them and letting you get-a head of them. Races can get-a very chaotic becuz of theez."

"It can really become a battlefield at times," said Toad with a nod.

"Isn't it dangerous?" asked Sakura.

"Nah, these items are specially designed to not-a badly hurt anyone, so eet'z perfectly safe," replied Luigi.

"And you don't have to worry about falling off the tracks either," added Toad. "There are staffs at the side always ready to catch you and put you back on track if you fall off."

It so happened that the footage they were watching showed a gorilla driving a kart resembling a wooden ship getting hit by a green shell and falling off the a cliff as a result, only to be somehow carried back up by a Lakitu using nothing but a fishing rod connected to the back of the kart.

"Well, are you guys gonna race or what? I'm gonna sign in now!" said Wario as headed over to the registration desk.

Saki turned to her companions and asked them, "So... you guys in? I'm definitely in!"

"I'll pass..." said Ai, motioning with her hand.

"I think I'll pass as well... I don't even know how to drive..." said Junko.

"Go karts are designed so that even children can easily drive them," Toad told her.

Hearing this, Lily raised her arm. "In that case, Lily is in! Looks fun!"

"I have no idea how to control modern day transportation devices, so I'm afraid I'll have to decline," said Yuugiri.

Saki then turned to Sakura and asked her, "Want to give it a try, Sakura? I'm sure this will be fun!"

"Um... I'm not sure if I'm up for this..." said Sakura. Tae, who was next to her, suddenly raised her arms into the air while making a sound. As if she understood what the mindless zombie was saying, Sakura said to her, "No, Tae. You can't ride one of those! They're nothing like bicycles! You be a good girl and watch with the others, and I'll get you snacks too!"

"C'mon! Give it a try! It's not everyday you get to try this out!" Saki said to Sakura while patting her shoulder, and then she turned to Ai, Junko, and Yuugiri to ask them again if they want to join, but they insisted that they wouldn't. Turning back to Sakura, she asked her "Well, have you decided yet?"

"Try it out, Sakura! I'm sure it'll be fun!" Lily begged the red-haired zombie while tugging her shirt.

Sakura thought for a while. After seeing how Saki and Lily were pleading her, she eventually nodded. "Okay... I guess it won't hurt..."

"All right!" said Saki happily. "Let's enjoy this to our fullest!"

Meanwhile, Junko noticed that quite of bit of people were looking at her and gossiping. She could tell that they were commenting on her looks. Yuugiri noticed this as well and asked her, "Are you all right with them talking about your appearance?"

"It's all right," Junko told her. "I chose to come out without my makeup today, so I was ready for this."

Shortly after saying this, a skeletal turtle walked past them, and its appearance surprised them, even freaking them out. The skeletal turtle approached the registration desk just as Wario was done signing up for a spot in the race. The latter turned around and noticed him, and he kept his eyes on the skeletal turtle as he walked away. Luigi approached Wario while eyeing the turtle and asked him, "That's-a him, right?"

"Back for more, Mister Dry Bomber?" the Lakitu behind the desk said to the skeletal turtle.

Hearing that name, Luigi and Wario narrowed their eyes in a way that showed annoyance. "Yes, it's him...!" they both said.

Noticing their change in expression, Saki went up to them and asked, "What's wrong? You look like you have a bone to pick with that guy."

"He's da winner of da fifth annual kart race, and also da race where he made his debut," replied Luigi in a not-so-cheerful tone. "In just-a his first race, he took da world by storm with his insane snaking technique!"

"Using that technique, he was able to get ahead of everyone and took the trophy for himself!" said Wario, also not looking pleased.

"That just means he's a pro, right?" said Saki.

"No! He wuz clearly cheating! Those insane snaking and drifting skills are, as much as I hate to say eet, god-like and shouldn't even be possible for any mortal!" said Luigi angrily.

"And yet, the judges said it is an incredibly hard technique to pull off that requires a large amount of skills, so it is not considered cheating!" said Wario. "Throughout the entirety of the fifth annual contest, he won first place in every single race, using that totally-not-cheating snaking and drifting techniques alone! You know you're the biggest cheater in the world if even someone who always plays dirty like Waluigi calls him a cheater as well!"

"But no, da judges are like... he'z a super skilled racer, so eet'z not cheating!" said Luigi in a silly-sounding tone.

"He returned for the sixth contest, and while he doesn't have a constant streak of first places this time, that fool took first place again using the same techniques!" said Wario angrily.

"And da judges are like... supa good-a skills! You deserve da trophy!" said Luigi in both an angry and silly-sounding tone.

"When he popped again in the eighth contest after skipping out the seventh, he still blew away people's minds with those outrageous snaking skills!" said Wario. "Though this time, he only got second prize. Still, it seems that he came to race here often and took first place all the time!"

"Yeah, as evident of that-a!" said Luigi, pointing at a bulletin board that had the picture of Dry Bomber and a banner above it saying:

 _Dry Bomber:_ _Racer of the Month! Is this even a surprise anymore?_

"Screw that guy!" said Wario angrily.

Luigi nodded. "For once, we agree on something!"

"Well, then let's break his record today!" said Saki with enthusiasm while cracking her knuckles. She noticed that her fingers ended up bending upwards unnaturally after doing so, so she positioned them correctly before heading for the registration desk. "Hey, I'm entering the race, so..." She noticed that the Lakitu was looking at her with a stunned expression. Knowing why, she asked him, "What? Never met a zombie before?" This only made the Lakitu drop his jaw. Pointing at Dry Bomber with her thumb, she asked him, "Is this to say a walking skeleton is less weirder than me?"

"In his defense," Luigi said to her from behind, "Dry Bones have been around since foreva, so they're nothing new. Zombies like you, on da otha hand..."

"Eh, whatever... So long as you're a customer..." said Lakitu as he looked down to flip through some papers, and then he asked Saki, "First time here?"

* * *

Every race required there to be a total of twelve racers, and twelve people had currently signed in. They were Mario, Luigi, Toad, Wario, Dry Bomber, a red Yoshi named Yoyo, a green Koopa Troopa named Koopert, a Shy Guy named Guy, a Wiggler named Flowers, Saki, Lily, and Sakura.

They were told that the race would last seven laps.

The twelve contestants were led into a different room by a Lakitu, and within the room were twelve computers, each of them located in front of steel doors. The Lakitu explained to them that they were to choose their favorite kart combinations using those touch screen computers and also gave them an explanation on how items work.

After he was done explaining all those, he reminded them of one more thing. "Be sure to put on the anti-gravity bracelets around your hands so that in case you fall off your karts, you will be affected by the anti-gravity terrain and stay on it. If any of you have detachable limbs for whatever reason, all I can say is that you don't go losing your arms! However, in case accidents happened and you do fall off the track, rest assure that we have staff members on standby at all times to rescue you before you hit the ground. All right; start picking your karts!"

Each of the contestants headed to an empty computer and began choosing their kart combinations. Saki approached her computer and was asked to choose between karts, standard bikes, sport bikes, or all-terrain vehicles. She picked sport bikes, and then a new screen popped up, displaying various kinds of motorcycles. "Cool!" she commented. "Let's see... Which should I choose?"

After tapping on the picture of the bike she wanted, she was brought to a new screen, this one showing different types of wheels and their statistics. She was surprised, as she wasn't expecting this level of customization.

Next to her, Sakura was deep in thought about what to choose. Because she didn't have faith in riding motorcycles, she chose karts. "Which one should I choose?" she wondered while looking through the kart selection. "Cat Cruiser looks cute! But I like Prancer as well..."

"I'm done!" said Lily happily after successfully picking out her kart combination. The screen then told him to wait for a few seconds for her kart to be made. He turned to the steel door in front and thought he heard the sound of machines coming from in there. A few seconds later, the door slid up, and a moving platform carrying the kart he created came out.

It was a kart vaguely shaped-like a pumpkin with two mechanical horses at the front, and its wheels came in various colors and had a cushion-like texture to it, the Prancer. There was also a glider coming out from behind it, taking the form of a pair of clouds with smiley faces. The gliders disappeared inside the kart shortly afterwards. Jumping up and down in front of the kart, Lily happily said, "Yay! This is my cute, little kart! I love it!"

"Ha! Check out mines!" Saki said to him while pointing at the motorcycle she customized, the Comet. It was a red bike with the number 8 printed at the side of it and had normal-looking tires.

"Looks plain..." commented Lily, looking unimpressed.

"It's the performance that counts, not the looks! I can bet you that I'm going to outperform you with this baby!" Saki told him with confidence.

"All right, if everyone is ready, then get into your karts and drive towards the main gate!" said the Lakitu out loud. After saying this, a large gate at one end of the room slowly slid up, and everyone hurriedly got into their karts.

Sakura's kart was the last to be created, as it took her a while to choose what she wanted. She finally chose a pink kart with cat tails and ears combined with red wheels and a pink parasol serving as its glider, the Cat Cruiser. Seeing that everyone was driving towards the gate, she hurriedly got into her kart and followed them.

Emerging outside, the contestants found themselves at a large racetrack with an anti-gravity section mostly in the form of a large "U" sticking vertically into the air. There was a ramp and a gap at the end of that area with a normal track at the other side of it.

"Wow...!" cried Sakura in awe as she looked at the impressive design of the stadium's interior and the track itself.

Meanwhile, Ai, Junko, Yuugiri, and Tae were at the audience area, which had quite a bit of people, but enough to fill up the entire place. The latter was eating from a large box of popcorn nonstop, and next to her was a cup of soda and a hot dog. The former three zombies noticed the racers coming out, and Ai pointed at them and said, "I can see Sakura, Lily, and Saki over there!"

"May the contestants please take their places before the starting line!" a Toad announcer said loudly into his microphone.

All the racers did as he said and positioned themselves orderly before the starting line.

Mario was driving a fairly simple-looking kart that was colored red, the Standard Kart.

Luigi drove a kart that looks like it is made out of red pipes, the Pipe Frame.

Wario rode a red motorcycle with flame patterns at the sides, the Flame Rider.

Toad drove a red all-terrain vehicle, or ATV, the Standard ATV.

Dry Bomber drove a kart resembling a ladybug, the Biddybuggy.

Yoyo rode a green motorcycle resembling his own species, the Yoshi Bike.

Guy drove a blue kart resembling a typical sports car, the Circuit Special.

Flowers drove an ATV resembling himself, the Wild Wiggler.

Koopert drove a green kart, the Tri-Speeder.

Saki noticed the kart Dry Bomber was driving and snickered at its rather childish design. Mario, who was next to her, told her, "Don't-a look down on that-a kart just becuz of eetz design. Eet eez one of da best when it comes to performing sharp turns, and the wheel he chose eez also one of da best for doing that-a too... Theez combination allows him to pull off some of da best mini turbo boosts, which in turns allows him to perform his infamous snaking technique!"

"I'll show him who's boss all right!" said Saki with confidence.

The flagman, a Lakitu riding on a cloud with a smiley face, told all the racers to get their vehicles ready. Some of the racers showed no signs of nervousness but instead had faces filled with confidence and pride that they were going to perform spectacularly, such as Wario, Saki, and Dry Bomber, while some looked rather nervous and wondered if they could amount to anything in this race, especially Sakura, who looks like she still hadn't fully grasped the controls.

"May da best man win!" Mario said to Saki.

"I'm not holding back against friends, mind you!" she told him.

"That's-a what I want to hear!" replied the plumber with a smirk.

"On your mark!" said the flagman loudly. "Three, two, one... GO!" With a wave of his black and white checkered flag, everyone stepped down on the gas pedal and zoomed off.

Wario took the lead right away, laughing as he did so. Looking back while giving a number three sign on his hand, he taunted, "Haha! You'll never take first place from me, losers!"

Despite it being her first time, Saki was second place and actually close to catching up with Wario, "Don't look down on me!"

All of a sudden, Dry Bomber went past her and slowly caught up to Wario while moving in a somewhat zigzag pattern. Seeing this, the announcer excitedly shouted, "Here it comes! Dry Bomber's infamous snaking technique that won him first place almost every time! He's doing it again!"

"Screw you! I'm not letting you win using that unfair technique again!" Wario shouted angrily at the approaching Dry Bones, who had a smug-look on his face as he constantly pulled off mini turbos to catch up with him.

The zombies in the audience area watched with interest at the race going on, while the crowd around them cheered loudly. "I can see Lady Lily over there!" said Yuugiri, pointing at the blue-haired zombie. Surprisingly, the latter was performing rather well and was currently in sixth place.

"Looks like she's driving pretty well!" said Junko. "I didn't expect her to be able to drive so smoothly!"

"Guess she's not a child prodigy for nothing!" said Ai. "By the way, have you seen Sakura?"

"Lady Sakura is over there," said Yuugiri, pointing at a particular kart was currently off-road and trying to get back on track after hitting a wall.

Sakura was unable to steer properly and ended up in that spot. Panicking nonstop, she desperately tried to get her kart back on track to continue the race, and she was currently in last place. "This is so embarrassing!" she cried.

Her companions looked at her with unimpressed and even embarrassed looks. "Well, she's off to a great start..." commented Ai in an sarcastic manner.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

In case you haven't realized yet, the track they are currently racing in is Mario Kart Stadium from MK8. All the vehicles used here are taken from that game as well.

Also in case you didn't realize, the gorilla riding a ship-shaped kart they saw in the video is Donkey Kong riding the Landship, also from MK8.

Dry Bomber is supposed to be the Dry Bone from Mario Kart DS. Those familiar with that game should know about the infamous and controversial snaking technique that completely destroyed the competitive scene for those who can't perform that technique properly. Dry Bomber is named after one of the karts in that game of the same name, which takes the appearance of a white tank and is one of Dry Bone's karts.

Of all the karts in that game, it is the best one for performing mini turbos, which is essential for snaking. Because of this, I decided to have a bit fun and name this Dry Bone after one of his karts and also make him a champion in kart racing! Also, the fifth and sixth races refer to Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii respectively, so you can guess what the seventh and eighth refer to.

All the other racers are ones who have been playable in the Mario Kart series before, and I made up names for them. I originally wanted to see if there were any specific in-game characters I could use, but then figured that some of them might seem out of place racing currently, so I decided to go with random, original names, which would make them original characters as well.


	8. Mario Kart Saga

**Chapter 8  
Mario Kart Saga**

* * *

 **BGM: Mario Kart Stadium (Mario Kart 8)**

The race was on, and everyone pressed forward as fast as they could. Currently, the three up ahead in order were Dry Bomber, Wario, and Saki.

Saki saw a rainbow-colored box up ahead. Remember what she was told about item boxes, she drove straight through one, and when did so, the screen on the front part of her bike displayed the picture of a red turtle shell and told her to tap it if she wants to use it. Curious, she tapped it with her finger fast, and in doing so, a red shell materialized out of thin air before her bike and shot forth at a fast speed, going after Wario.

The fat man was struck by the red shell, which shattered on impact, and sent him for a spin. Saki was able to go past him afterwards, and she stuck out her tongue at him as she did so. "How dare you?!" said Wario as he tried to catch up, but found Mario zooming past him. "Argh!"

The two announcers for this race, a Toad and a Lakitu, watched from their location. "The racers are getting to the anti-gravity area now!" said the Lakitu. "And look at that girl go! She appears to be a new face, and yet she's performing quite well! I have the feeling that she's going to steal the show, regardless of whether or not she gets first place!"

Looking at a piece of paper, the Toad said, "Her name written here is Saki Nikaido, and apparently, she's a... zombie?!"

"That explains her skin color, then!" said Lakitu. "But who cares what she is? So long as she can impress us with awesome driving skills, she's a cool person in my eyes! Who says all zombies are dangerous? There are good Dry Bones after all!"

Ai, Junko, and Yuugiri looked at the room where the announcers were when they heard this, and Yuugiri commented, "They sure are taking this whole zombie identity very well..."

All of a sudden, the entire placed flashed in white light brightly at the same time bolts of lightning shot down from the sky and struck various parts of the racetrack. To be precise, the contestants. Needless to say, the sound was incredibly loud, so much that almost all of the audiences jumped in shock while closing their ears.

However, none of them were as shocked as Ai when this happened. The zombie shrieked loudly while literally jumping up front her seat, and when she landed, she curled up almost into a complete ball with her hands over her head while trembling nonstop.

Knowing well that her companion was having a case of PTSD, Junko hurriedly tried to comfort her. "Ai! Are you all right?"

Yuugiri, on the other hand, looked at a a large screen on the stadium wall, and much to her confusion, she saw that the racers were at a much smaller size than before.

"Which idiot got and used a lightning bolt?!" shouted a shrunken Wario in a high-pitched voice as if he inhaled helium.

"Wow! What a shocker!" said the Lakitu. "It seems that someone got his or her hands on a lightning bolt!"

"Look at all those tiny little karts zooming around on the racetrack!" said the Toad.

Of all the racers, Sakura was the only one who did not shrink. In fact, she was confused about what happened. One moment, she was looking at the picture of a lightning bolt on her kart's screen, and the moment after she tapped it, the sound of thunder shocked her and lit up the place. She was sure she saw lightning bolts dropping down all over the place, striking each of the racers, but instead of burning them up, they were all shrunken to the size of toys instead. "What... What happened...?" she said with question marks all over her head.

She was even more surprised when the racer before her, Flowers, grew back to normal size. The Wiggler turned red as she turned around to shake her fist at the zombie and cursed her angrily, and the latter desperately apologized.

Ai finally uncurled herself and looked less scared than before. Junko once again asked if she was all right. The former replied, "I'm... I'm fine... I thought I had already gotten over this after Saga Rock, but I guess not... Did... Did lightning seriously struck just now?!"

"Nobody was hurt, it seems, other than... becoming smaller..." replied Yuugiri while continuing to look at the shrunken racers on the screen, though by this time, they were returning to normal size one after the other.

Saki grew back to normal size, and she was still confused about what happened just now. "Whoa... That was... strange, I guess...?" she commented in confusion. Ignoring that for now, she looked up ahead and saw the track slanting.

Having finally reached the anti-gravity track, Saki felt herself floating up a bit. Looking down, she saw that the wheels of her bike had become disk-like and were spinning horizontally. The next thing she knew, she found herself traveling on a track that had slanted to the point it became a wall. "This is awesome!" she exclaimed. She looked up ahead and saw Dry Bomber still speeding ahead like nobody's business. "I'm going to catch up with you!"

Suddenly, Mario dashed past her, his kart constantly releasing burst of fire from its back. His kart was constantly hopping slightly into the air as well. In fact, he was actually catching up with Dr Bomber.

"Are you seeing what I am seeing? Mario is catching up with Dry Bomber!" said the Lakitu in surprise.

"I don't believe it! And look at the way he is driving!" said the Toad. "Did he come up with a new technique to compete with Dry Bomber's snaking?"

Dry Bomber looked back and was surprised to see Mario slowly catching up to him by constantly jumping and releasing bursts of fire from the back of his kart. Smirking with confidence, the Dry Bone let loose the banana peel he had been storing all this time. However, Mario was able to avoid running into it, much to the frustration of the skeletal turtle. Saki came up afterwards and was able to avoid it as well, but not Wario.

Mario and Dry Bomber continued leading the race, and when they came to a ramp, they zoomed off it and went into the air. Gliders popped out from the back of their karts when they were airborne, thus allowing them to safely glide to the track on the other side. Dry Bomber a multi-colored parachute as his glider, while Mario has a red glider with the number 8 printed on it.

* * *

As Toad concentrated on going as fast as he could to catch up with the contestants up front, Luigi caught up with him, and as the latter was going past him, he turned his head to look at Toad.

It was as that moment Toad felt as if time had slowed down drastically.

Toad turned his head to look at Luigi, and at that moment, he saw it. It was the face that once seen, one could never forget.

The slanted eyebrows of the plumber in green, the upside-down smile on his face... It was an expression that conveyed something that could not be described by human means or possibly by the means of anything on the planet.

One thing for sure was that this expression conveyed anything but happiness.

The unmistakable angry eyes... The unforgettable frown...

All these explicitly showed the kind of face the man in green was conveying and the meaning behind it, the meaning that brings to mind the exact opposite of life...

It was the stare of death...

Powerful death...

One could not even possibly imagine what was going on in the head of Toad when he laid his eyes upon the gazes of death. Was it fear? Was it sadness? Or was it shock?

One also had to ask what was going in Luigi's head when he put on such an expression on his face. For what reason did he had to convey such an expression? Had Toad ever done anything to him to deserve such a response?

Toad could not understand the feeling that was in his mind and heart right now as he beheld the gazes of death shown to him by Luigi. He also felt as if his life was flashing before his eyes. Even if he understood what feeling he currently had, there were no words that could be used to describe it.

Sweat slowly dripped down from underneath his mushroom cap. Toad was unsure what sort of reaction he should have as Luigi continued to stare at him with eyes of death and a frown that was ready to devour his will to live.

Just as Toad was wondering when this indescribable feeling was going to end, Luigi moved past him, slowly turning his head back to the front as he did so. As this happened, the feeling of fear and dreadfulness that was in Toad's mind began to lift. It was then he realized that salvation had finally come to him, even though he did nothing. But who was he to complain? So long as he got the chance to live another day, it was everything he could ask for.

He watched the backside of Luigi as the plumber in green moved farther and farther from him, hopefully to never bestow upon him the stare of death again.

Truly, this was a moment that Toad would never be able to forget. At that moment, time returned to normal, and the race continued as usual.

In an act of breaking the fourth wall, Toad looked at you, the reader, and asked, "Did the author seriously spent so many lines talking about the Luigi Death Stare meme?!"

* * *

Guy was speeding down the racetrack when suddenly he was struck from behind by a red shell and sent for a spin. Koopert caught up to him from the side and turned to the recovering Shy Guy and mockingly said, "Ha! How'd ya like that?" But then his expression changed to that of being stunned.

Guy's mask had been knocked off of its position and left hanging at the side of his head, just enough for his true face to be seen. Koopert spend several seconds staring at the sight before him, petrified with fear, and then he screamed like a girl. When a curve up ahead approached, he drove off it and continued until he hit the wall, while Guy traveled down the racetrack normally and adjusting his mask back to its original position at the same time.

Noticing this, the announcer Toad said, "What just happened? Koopert seemingly passed out in the middle of his race and went off course, crashing into the wall!"

"It would appear that he saw Guy's face underneath the mask!" said the announcer Lakitu.

"Oh my! I feel bad for him!" said Toad. "I have never seen what is underneath a Shy Guy's mask, but according to eyewitnesses, it's a sight you will wish to forget but can never forget about it!"

"There is a poll about what is the scariest things in the world, and can you believe that a Shy Guy's true face ranks number one?" said the Lakitu. "Judging from Koopert's reaction, I think we can indeed confirm that whatever he saw, it is truly the most terrifying thing in the world!"

Thank to Koopert passing out, Sakura was no longer last, though that didn't make her feel any happier. Still struggling with the controls, she panicked as she hoped nothing bad would happen while trying to catch up with the others.

Suddenly, a white squid descended in front of her, much to her confusion. Before she knew it, the squid sprayed ink onto her face, making her scream in shock while turning her wheel to the side. This caused her to to spin out of control and go off track.

Lily looked at the racers around himself and saw that they were all sprayed in the face by white squids that descended from the air. "So that's what it does..." he thought.

"Looks like they've been inked by a Blooper!" said the Lakitu. "Will they be able to keep on driving properly or even see properly?"

While Tae ate her hot dogs, both at the same time, Ai, Junko, and Yuugiri watched the screen with expressions that show they were mind boggled by what the saw, especially the former two. "How did they come up with these things...?" asked Ai.

Suddenly, an explosion happened somewhere on the track, much to their horror. "Someone just got and used a Bob-Omb!" said the announcer Toad.

It was Yoyo who just tossed a Bob-Omb ahead of himself, blasting Luigi, Lily, and Toad, thus allowing him to go past those three. Despite the relatively large explosion, those three racers did not suffer any form of injuries at all and looked as if they weren't even hit by anything. After recovering from spinning out of control, they continued with the race like nothing happened.

"How... How is no one dying or getting injured in a race like this...?" asked a mind boggled Junko.

Meanwhile, Sakura had gotten back on track and wiped the ink off her face. She was unaware that her makeup was partially wiped off as she continued to catch up with the others.

Koopert suddenly caught up with her from the side, having gotten over his shock of seeing Guy's face. He turned to look at Sakura and met face to face with her partially-exposed true form. After staring at her for a few seconds, the turtle screamed in terror while driving off track again.

* * *

The race continued on with the usual shenanigans happening. They were on the fifth lap, and the top two racers were Dry Bomber and Mario in the first and second place respectively.

Behind them, Wario and Saki constantly competed for third place.

Glaring at the zombie while driving next to her, Wario said to her, "Know your place and get last place, newbie!"

"Not gonna happen!" Saki shouted back.

"Then eat this!" said Wario as he used the item he had been storing. Tapping the screen on his bike, three green shells appeared around him and orbited his bike nonstop, and then he attempted to close in on Saki to hit her with them, all the while laughing in a sinister way.

Suddenly, Lily zoomed past them, his entire vehicle glowing with various colors, and rammed into them both, causing them to spin out. "Weeeee! This is fun!" exclaimed Lily happily as he zoomed down the path while under the effect of the Starman. It then ended. "Awww..." He was immediately hit by a red shell afterwards, thus allowing Saki and Wario to go past him.

Looking back at him, Saki said with a smirk, "What goes around comes around, shrimpy!"

Saki went through another item box right after that, and she got a mushroom. Wario was about to catch up with her when she used it boost forward, much to his annoyance. "Argh!" he growled, and was immediately hit by a stray green shell afterwards. "WAUGH!"

* * *

 **BGM Mario Kart Stadium [Final Lap] (Mario Kart 8)**

The race went on until they were finally in the last round. Dry Bomber was first, unsurprisingly, with Mario and Saki behind him, and they were all getting closer to the finish line.

Saki struck an item box again and got a banana peel, which she chose to throw up ahead. The peel landed in front of Mario, and he was too late to avoid it and thus slipped on it. This allowed the zombie to go past him.

"You're next!" she said to Dry Bomber while going full speed ahead. Dry Bomber looked back and snickered before dropping a banana peel behind himself, hoping to slip her. However, the zombie saw this in the nick of time, and with fast reaction, turned to the side and went past it.

After hitting another item box, she got a green shell. She took careful aim of the Dry Bone before shouting, "Eat this and die!" She launched her green shell at Dry Bomber. The Dry Bone looked back with a surprised face as the shell struck his kart, causing him to spin out. Saki then zoomed past him, laughing in triumph as she did so. "All right! First place is mine!" she shouted with confidence.

As she came closer and closer to the finish line, she got up from a seat and leaned her body forward, looking forward to receiving first place. Seeing that their friend was winning, Ai and Junko stood up and shouted excitedly at her, "YOU CAN DO IT, SAKI!"

However, moments before she was able to touch the finish line, Dry Bomber rammed into her side hard, causing how to slow down a tiny bit, just enough for him to go past her and take the first place for himself.

 **BGM Ends**

"And the winner is... DRY BOMBER!" shouted the Lakitu loudly. The crowd went wild, clapping their hands for the Dry Bone that once again took first place. Rather than looking excited, Ai and Junko were now both stunned in shock.

"How unfortunate..." commented Yuugiri.

Meanwhile, Tae clapped her hands while making "zombie noises" nonstop.

As Dry Bomber waved triumphantly at the audience from his kart, Saki pounded the front of her bike angrily and shouted, "DARN IT!"

Soon, all the other racers crossed the finish line. The ranking was as follows:

Dry Bomber  
Saki  
Mario  
Wario  
Yoyo  
Luigi  
Lily  
Toad  
Guy  
Flowers  
Sakura  
Koopert

"Argh! Fourth place and behind Mario!" said Wario angrily while shaking his fists in the air.

Lily had an unimpressed look on his face as he rested his chin on the steering wheel. "Lily is not happy with this placement..."

"Hey, you did better than me, an old timer, so that's saying something already!" Toad said to him as he drove up to next to him.

Sakura sighed in disappointment and said, "Eleventh place... I guess this is better than dead last... I knew I shouldn't have joined..."

Mario got out of his kart and approached Saki just as she was stepping off her bike. "You did-a well!" he said to her with a smile. "Getting second place for a newcomer is no easy task!"

"I said I would wipe off that guy's smug look, but sorry that I didn't keep my word..." she said to him.

"I'm sure you managed to give him quite a shock!" Mario told her.

"We have a special announcement!" said the announcer Toad all of a sudden. "As some of you may know, we do something like this once every month. After the first race of the day has ended, we will hold a special lottery for another race in a different track, and today is that day!"

"Oh, today is that day?" said Luigi curiously.

"What is it?" Lily asked him.

"Eetz just like da announcer said. Every once in a month in a particular day, they will hold a special second race after da first one has ended, and the winner will choose from a lottery to decide where da second race will be," Luigi explained to him. "Eet will be tracks that were used in past contests."

"So there will be another round?" Sakura asked him. When he nodded in response, she sighed in disappointment, as she was hoping that it was now over.

"And by da way, your makeup is partially wiped off. I can see a bit of the scar on your forehead..." Luigi told her.

"Yeah, I figured that was the case when that turtle over there freaked out from seeing me..." said Sakura while pointing at Koopert with her thumb.

As Dry Bomber was the winner, he went up to a large box with a hole on top of it, and the flagman Lakitu was standing next to it, telling him to pick a scroll from it.

Dry Bomber reached into the box and shuffled his hand around inside it before pulling up a small scroll. Unrolling it, he read the content in there and dropped his jaw open in shock, a sight that made the other racers curious. He handed the scroll to the Lakitu, who also dropped his jaw in shock upon seeing its content.

"What track did he pick?" asked Yoyo curiously.

Raising the scroll into the air, the Lakitu yelled into his microphone, "RAINBOW ROAD!"

Immediately, there was a collective gasp and even cheers coming from the audience. Almost everyone in the stadium went wild and chanted Rainbow Road over and over. The zombies, however, were confused as to why everyone was going so crazy over this. "Uh... Is this something... worth celebrating over...?" asked Junko.

"Wait a minute... Rainbow Road... Wasn't the song I sang yesterday called Rainbow Road or something?" said Ai, trying to recall yesterday's events.

The racers were surprised to hear this as well. "Mamamia! Picking Rainbow Road of all tracks eez supa rare!" said Luigi. "Normally, you only get-a to race on eet during annual contests!"

"Oh yeah! Now we're talking!" said Wario with enthusiasm. "A good challenge means a good race!"

"Um... We're out of the loop... What exactly makes this Rainbow Road so special?" asked Sakura.

Turning to her, Mario explained, "Every year, Rainbow Road eez always da last track of da contest, and eet eez always da hardest and longest track. You can say eet'z da ultimate racetrack that puts all your skills to da challenge. Normally, eet eez only raced on during contests. There haz always been chances of racing on it through lottery, but no one ever managed to pick it... They say the chances of getting eet eez extremely rare..."

Saki became excited when she heard this. "The ultimate racetrack? I'm totally looking forward to it!"

"What a surprise, folks!" said the announcer Lakitu. "To pick out Rainbow Road of all the tracks! Can you be any luckier than that? Racing on it is one thing, to be able to even see Rainbow Road with your own eyes is no easy task!"

"Now that Dry Bomber has gotten the honor of picking Rainbow Road, I guess it's time to get the space shuttle ready," said the announcer Toad .

"That's right, folks!" said the Lakitu. "Hold on to your karts, racers! We're about to go to outer... space!"

The crowd went wild when they heard this, while the zombies had looks of surprise on their faces. Turning to Mario, Lily asked him, "When he said we're going to outer space... It's metaphorical, right?"

Mario shook his head. "Nope! We're literally going to outa space. Rainbow Road eez a racetrack found in space!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Yeah, Luigi Death Stare... I just went there! Since this is Mart Kart, I simply felt the need to throw in that meme and put a hilariously overdramatic focus on it. What do you think?

The technique Mario used for catching up with Dry Bomber is an actual technique used in Mario Kart 8 called fire hopping. Like snaking in Mario Kart DS, fire hopping is considered a high-leveled and controversial technique that pretty much ruined competitive scenes for players who don't know how to perform it. It got removed in the Switch version of the game, much to the joy of many people.

It is implied that Shy Guys' faces are terrifying to look at. In Mario Power Tennis, there is a cutscene where the playable Shy Guy loses his mask in front of Luigi, and the latter was shocked by what he saw, but the player doesn't get to see it due to the camera being behind the Shy Guy.

Sorry if you were hoping for the race to be longer and have more stuff going on. Honestly saying, trying to type out a race is harder than it seems. There is only so many things you can come up with before you run out of ideas and decide to get to the finish line soon.

Either way, it's not over yet, because next, they're off to Rainbow Road... in space!


	9. Zombie Idols in Space

**Chapter 9  
Zombie Idols in Space  
**

* * *

Calling Rainbow Road a space racetrack wasn't wrong, but perhaps it was more accurate to call it a space shopping mall.

Taking the form of a glass sphere surrounded by metallic architectures, within which one could see a long and winding multi-colored racetrack, Rainbow Road was located in outer space, out of Earth's atmosphere but still within its orbit.

A space shuttle in the form of a Blooper was seen approaching the intergalactic attraction and entered a large steel hatch of one of the architectures surrounding the glass sphere.

Once the shuttle was inside and the hatch had closed, a passage came out from a wall and connected itself to the space shuttle's hatch. From within, the passengers exited the shuttle through the passage as if they were coming out of a plane.

After leaving the passage amd going through a hallway, the passengers arrived at a large room with glass walls on both sides, one side showing the space scenery and the other side showing the racetrack itself.

Needless to say, it was a sight that impressed everyone, but none were as impressed as Franchouhou.

The people who came consisted of not only the racers, but also friends and relatives who were watching them at the stadium that time. The announcers came along as well.

"Welcome to Rainbow Road!" said a voice broadcast that echoed throughout the place.

The zombies were completely left speechless at the grand design of the place. Not only were they having a hard time believing they were in space, they were even having a hard time believing that such a location could exist in space.

"In... Incredible! Am I dreaming?!" said Sakura in awe. In response, Saki helped pinch the red-haired zombie's cheek. The former's makeup was still partially undone, as there was nothing that could be done about it at the moment.

Lily ran over to one side of the glass wall with a look of pure joy and looked at Earth, which was visible from there. "Yuugiri! Look! It's Planet Earth!" he excitedly said to the courtesan, who came over with Ai and Junko to behold the planet.

"So that's how the world looks like! I have previously only seen drawings and models of it. To be able to see the actual thing from up here among the stars... It truly is an indescribable experience!" said Yuugiri, clearly enjoying the view. "Mankind sure has come a long way since my time!"

"I can't believe we're in space!" said Junko in disbelief as she pressed her hands against the glass while looking at Earth. "Something like this would be considered almost science fiction in my time, even if space travel did already happen back then!"

"Even back in our world in its current age, going to space is not something idols have the privilege of, and yet in this world, they've created an entire attactrion for normal citizens to go to!" said Ai in awe. "This... This is completely unreal! Just how advanced is this world's technology?!"

Mario came over and said to them, "Rainbow Road is a group effort created by da collaboration of almost all da countries in da world, each using their best resources. Theez place eez truly an unbelievable masterpiece that everyone should visit at-a least once!"

Wario came over and boasted, "My company even contributed something! After doing so, I told them to make something here in honor of my contribution to things, but all they did was make a lousy toilet plaque..." He then pointed at the restroom doors, which had two plaques next to the entrances. The one pointing at the male restroom was modeled after Wario in a white tuxedo. The one pointing at the female restroom resembled a gender swapped Wario, having no moustache and wearing a frilly, pink dress and a crown.

"All you did was provide them with soap dispensers designed to look like your nose! I think more people were disgusted by it than appreciating it!" Toad said to him.

When she heard this, Junko visualized Wario's noise placed against the wall, and when one pressed it, the soap oozed out from the nostrils in a manner just like liquid booger oozing out. Thinking of it made her shudder in disgust.

There was another broadcast. "While the racetrack and the karts are being prepared, please enjoy your time at the Zero Gravity Mall! Feel free to buy whatever you want! We will let you know when the race is ready to begin!"

The staff members of the place guided the passengers across the room and through a door. They were greeted with an empty room on the other side, and a staff member Toad there held out objects resembling safety pins and said, "Those of you who are wearing skirts, please clip these work safe pins onto them. The next room offers a lot of opportunities for prying eyes to get a peek underneath your skirts, so you'll definitely want to put these on.

Junko and Sakura were both shocked to hear this. Their face turning red, they hurriedly got on of those pins from the Toad and did as he said, even though they didn't know what they were supposed to do. Sakura also got on and put it onto Tae's skirt. Yuugiri got one as well, though unlike the aforementioned two, she didn't become embarrassed at when he heard what the Toad said.

"What is this supposed to do?" Junko asked the Toad.

"These are special safety pins to mask the underside of your skirt with a special hologram that keeps people from seeing your undergarments," he explained. "If they look underneath your skirt, all they will see is a starry sky."

"Really?" said the skeptical white-haired zombie.

"Whoa! It's true! I can lots of stars!" said Saki, who had bent down next to Junko and was looking up her skirt. This caused the latter to shriek and jump away while holding down her skirt. "Relax! What he said is true! I saw nothing but a night sky filled with stars underneath!"

"All right, if all of you are ready, we're entering the mall now!" said the Toad as he pulled a lever on the wall. The hatch before them opened, and everyone floated into the air as a result.

"Wha?! We're flying?!" said Sakura in surprise.

"This is what you call weightlessness, because we're in space!" Lily explained to her.

Everyone floated into the next room, and they were completely blown away by what they saw.

It was a massive and tall room filled with various kinds of shops, selling souveneirs and food products.

Rather than using stairs and escalators to get from place to place, one could simply "fly" around under the effect of weightlessness instead.

 **BGM: Sky Station 1 (Super Mario Galaxy 2)**

"Welcome to Zero Gravity Mall!" a staff member Toad happily said to everyone.

At once, many of the customers flew off happily to tour the place. "Wow! This place is incredible! I can stay here all day!" said Saki as she "swam" through the air happily.

"Me too!" said Lily as he performed various acrobatic flips and spins to travel around.

"Then you have that-a rage-inducing guy to thanks for theez..." said an annoyed Luigi while pointing at Dry Bomber, who was window shopping nearby, with his thumb.

"Go ahead and enjoy to your heart's content!" Mario said to the zombies. "Buy whatever you like, as long as you have da money!"

The zombies floated through the weightless mall, looking around with mouths wide open in awe. There were various shops all over the place, selling things like clothing, toys, accessories, food products, books, and more.

Seeing a toy section filled with plushes, Lily floated over there and picked up a plush of a yellow Luma. "This is so cute!" he squealed as he gave the stuffed toy a huge squeeze.

Ai came across a crane machine containing stuffed dolls of creatures that were unidentifiable to her, though she assumed they were wildlifes of this world. Finding interest in some of the stuffed dolls, she took out a coin to began playing the crane machine.

Yuugiri was window shopping a store selling various kinds of woodwork decorations. Hanging on the store's wall were wooden carvings of celestial bodies such as an angry sun, a smiling moon, and a Starman. She noticed a wooden sculpture of an Eastern dragon with puffy cheeks and circles on certain segments of its body, and she took interest in it.

Floating over the boutique section, Junko picked up a pink dress and admired it. Showing it to Sakura, she asked the latter what she thinks of it. "I think it'll look good on you!" said the latter.

"You can try it out in the dressing room over there," a female Toad clerk told Junko while pointing her hand at a nearby dressing room.

"Try it, Junko! I'm sure you'll love it!" Sakura suggested the white-haired zombie.

"Well, if you say so," said the latter, and then she headed for the dressing room. "It's going to be awkward changing while floating around, isn't it?"

After watching Junko enter the dressing room, Sakura turned her head to the side and noticed Tae floating away on her own towards a drink bar. "Tae! Don't run off on your own!" she cried out the latter before going after her.

Luigi had just bought a drink from the drink vendor when Tae approached him. Turning to face her, he said to her, "You want to eat something?"

"Tae!" said Sakura as she floated over to grab the mindless zombie. "You shouldn't run off without me!"

"You treat her like a pet, don't you? Not saying it in a bad way, mind you..." said Luigi.

"Well, she does behave like a dog. Heheh..." replied Sakura while chuckling a bit.

"Anyway, try out the snacks here!" Luigi told her. "Try out the Chuckola Cola if you're thirsty. Feeling hungry? Try out the Cheesy Drumstick, then! If you want some sweets, then try out the Star Bits!

Meanwhile, Junko had finished changing into the pink dress she was interested in and floated out of the dressing room. She looked around for Sakura, and then the clerk from before floated over to her. "You look great in this dress, miss!" she said to the zombie. "I think it goes well with your unique-looking body coloration!"

"Thank you!" she replied.

"I'm sorry if this is sensitive information, but I can't help but be curious about your appearance..." the clerk asked her. "Do you mind sharing the reason for your unique look?"

"I'm... a zombie..." replied Junko, looking a bit nervous.

The clerk was surprised to hear this and asked if she was serious. The latter assured her that she was serious, so the clerk said, "I never would have thought! You look nothing like how people claim them to look like at all or even on TV! You know, scary, rotting, hideous... You look just like a normal person, and an attractive one that!"

"Thank you...!" said Junko, relieved that the clerk wasn't horrified by the revelation of what she was.

"Is this is your first time here? If so, then I'll give you a special thirty percent discount!" the clerk told her.

"Really? I think I'll take it then!" Junko happily said.

"And by the way, if you left your work safe pin back on your previous clothing, then you'll want to change back fast before someone gets a peek at you from below..." the clerk whispered to her. Hearing this, Junko's face turned red before rushing back into the dressing room at a fast speed.

Elsewhere, Mario was floating around when he saw Saki playing a rail shooter arcade game entitled Yoshi's Wild Safari, so he headed over to her and watched her play. "Enjoying the game?"

The game was about a soldier riding a Yoshi through a battlfield and shooting his enemies with a gun.

"You bet!" she said without taking her eyes off the screen and firing constantly from the machine's built-in gun, called a Super Scope, at the screen. "Man! What graphics! They sure are a huge upgrade from since I died!"

"How long have you been dead?" Mario asked her.

"About twenty years," she replied.

"That's-a very long! You really did missed out a lot-a! Well, hope you enjoy what da future haz to offa!" Mario said to her.

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

About forty minutes had passed since arriving at the place, but even in a rather short time, everyone was able to enjoy to his or her fullest.

Close to the top of the place, Sakura, Tae, and Lily were seated on a bench attached to a wall, and they were fastened to it using seat belts so that they wouldn't float away. Tae was eating a large chicken drumstick covered in cheese.

Looking up at the glass dome that clearly displayed the starry space on the other side, Sakura said, "I can't believe that we're actually in space! If we were back in our world, this is a chance we would never get!"

"I really love this world, so much I don't feel like going back!" said Lily happily while holding up the Luma plush he bought.

"We can't stay here forever, not without letting Tatsumi know about this first," Sakura told him. "I have to admit that this place is so fun that I don't feel like going back either, but we really can't..."

Suddenly, there was another broadcast. "The race is ready to start now! May the racers please head into Passage B to get to the garage. Your karts are all over there. Audiences please head to Passage A to get to the audience seats. The race is ready so start now, so please hurry up!"

"There's our cue!" said Sakura as she unfastened her seat belt. "C'mon, let's go!"

The three zombies floated towards Passage B, which was located at the bottom. Passage A was close to it, and the other zombies were floating in front of it. Seeing Sakura, Saki waved at her. "There you are! Ya ready for round two?"

"Not like I can retreat now, so might as well..." said Sakura, not sounding too enthusiastic.

Saki wrapped her arm around her shoulders and said, "Oh, come on! Don't let a single bad performance let you down! Put all your idol energy into this and you'll definitely win big time! But just so you know, I ain't going easy on ya!"

"Look what I bought!" Lily told Yuugiri while showing her the Luma plush.

"How adorable!" said the courtesan with a smile. Holding up a paper bag, she said to him, "I also bought something!"

"What is it?" Lily asked her. He looked into the bag and only saw a box inside it.

"You'll see, though I don't know if you will have interest in it," said Yuugiri.

"Do you find this cute? I caught it in the crane machine!" said Ai proudly while showing Sakura a stuffed toy of a black hairy ball with large eyes and a wide open mouth.

Sakura was a bit freaked out by the toy's appearance, but then remembered that Ai's definition of cute was somewhat questionable. "Yeah, it looks pretty cute.." she said, wanting to sound nice.

Lily handed the Luma plush to Yuugiri and told her to help take care of it. Sakura also told Tae to go with the others to Passage A and watch her race. Mario, Luigi, and Toad showed up, and the former said to them, "Are you ready for the next round?"

"You bet I am!" said Saki while punching her palm.

* * *

The audience area consisted of a rectangular room filled with seats, and at the front was a large glass wall with the racetrack visible on the other side. Because the room was situated rather high up into the air, one could get a good glimpse of almost the entirety of the track. Across the glass wall was a piece of glass that served as a see-through TV screen that would display certain areas of the track. As this room had artificial gravity, everyone was on the floor.

Ai, Junko, Yuugiri, and Tae were seated up front. Leaning forward to get a better look at the track, Junko said, "Wow...! That is one long and complicated track!" She noticed several loops and slanted pathways, including a massive tube that was completely vertical like an elevator shaft.

"I'm still amazed that an architecutre like this can exist high up in the heavens," said Yuugiri. "From what I know about back in our world, it's not something that is possible?"

"At least not to this scale," explained Ai. "There are space stations operated by astronauts, who live there for the purpose of studying space. An intergalactic shopping mall and racetrack? That's completely unheard of back in our world... I'm still having hard time believing that this location even exists..."

Two red Koopa Troopas sitting behind them looked at each other, and one of them asked his companion, "What are they talking about?" The latter shrugged in response.

The announcers were inside another room located in a different area, and they could see the entire racetrack through the glass wall before them as well. There was a see-through TV screen in front of them that served the same purpose as the aforementioned one. In addition to that, they also had computers on their desks that showed them all the racers and their current statistics.

One by one, the racers arrived at the racetrack via a bridge leading from the garage to it, and they positioned themselves in front of the starting line. As she was positioning her bike correctly, Saki said in her head, "The ultimate racetrack! I can tell it's going to be a blast already!" She then looked at Dry Bomber and noticed that several other racers were glaring at him. "This time, I'm going to wipe that smug off his face and dethrone him!"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" said the annoucer Toad through a speaker nearby. "We are soon to begin the race of Rainbow Road! I hope you enjoyed shopping at the Zero Gravity Mall earlier! Rainbow Road isn't open the public all the time, so to be able to come here is a rare opportunity that you should cherish!"

"Slight touches have been made to each of your vehicles," said the announcer Lakitu to the racers. "This time, you will be able to carry up to two items at once! Just look at your screens!" The racers looked a the screen on their rides' control panels and saw that there were two empty boxes there rather than one. "Being able to store two items can be a useful strategy! If you're lucky, you may end up getting great item combinations!"

"Due to the length of the racetrack, there will be five rounds rather than seven," added the Toad. "And to make things more exciting, certain areas of the track will rearrange itself after the first person makes a complete lap! That way, you will have a different experience every lap!"

"And that is why I like-a Rainbow Road!" said Mario, sounding excited. "You'll neva know what-a to expect!"

Looking down the edge of the track, Sakura asked with a worried face, "We're so high up... Is falling down an issue?"

"Don't-a worry; staffs will pull you up in time if you fall off," Luigi told her. "Falling happened several times, but nobody ever got hurt. Just drive properly, and you won't fall off. Eet'll be fine!"

Eventually, the flagman Lakitu appeared on the scene on his cloud. "On your mark," he said loudly, "get set... Three, two, one... GO!"

Immediately, all the karts took off as a fast speed, and Sakura was the last to move out. Her friends in the audience area saw this and once again felt embarrassed for her. "Why did she join this in the first place...?" asked Ai.

"There goes the racers!" said the Toad. "Mario is taking the lead this time, with Dry Bomber and Saki closely behind him! Meanwhile, Sakura is in last place!"

"They're getting to the speed zone soon! It's where the pathway forces your kart to travel at max speed! Try your best not to fall off the track while moving that fast!" said the Lakitu.

It didn't take too long for the racers to come across a row of item blocks for them to go through, and not too long after that was the special pathway that greatly boosted the speed of all those traveling on it. Most of the racers got onto that pathway at the same time, so they were huddled rather close to each other as they sped down that area at equally fast speeds, constantly ramming into each other as well.

"Out of the way!" shouted Wario as he kicked Lily in the side of his kart.

"Bully! How can you attack a little kid?!" the latter angrily said to him.

"Anything's fair and square in a race!" Wario said to him. "Plus, age equality! You were asking for it when you entered this race!"

Eventually, the racers got out of the "high speed" zone one by one and came across item boxes again. Toad went through one of the items boxes, and as he had previously stored the item he got from the first row of boxes, he currently had two different items at his disposal: a Starman and a golden mushroom.

Looking at the racers around him, he said, "I hate to sound like a mean person, but..." Then he smiled in a sinister manner. "...see you later, losers!" He used both items at once. Flashing brightly with various colors, Toad tapped the golden mushroom icon on his screen over and over to receive a seemingly endless amount of speed boosts. Combined with the effect of the Starman, he was able to travel at a super fast speed and knocked away everyone in his way. In fact, he surpassed the top three racers up ahead.

"Do you see that?! Toad has managed to surpass everyone else and is currently in first place!" said the announcer Toad.

"He is fortunate to have obtained an awesome item combination!" said the Lakitu while looking at his computer, which showed that Toad was using both the Starman and the golden mushroom.

With each tap of the golden mushroom, Toad cried out "woohoo" happily and eventually approached a ramp. Because of the speed he was going at, he jumped high and far into the air from going off it. There was a sharp turn to the right immediately after the ramp, but due to the speed he was moving at, he was unable to steer in time and ended up flying off the track and falling down. His series of "woohoo" became a long "waaaaaaaa" instead.

Meanwhile, everyone else successfully made a sharp turn the right after jumping off the ramp.

"Remember, folks, too much 'shrooms is bad for you!" said the Lakitu while Toad was being carried back onto the track by another Lakitu using a fishing rod.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Liking my interpretation of Rainbow Road? It's not just a space racetrack, but an entire shopping mall located in space, with the kart race serving as its main attraction! And speaking of which, the Rainbow Road design here is made up by me, albeit it takes inspirations from the Mario Kart 8 version in that it is a space station of some kind rather than an unexplained racetrack floating in the sky or space.

Again, there are quite a few references to the Mario franchise here, as shown below:

The Blooper-shaped space shuttle is from Mario Kart 8, found flying around the background of Rainbow Road.

The gender swapped Wario plaque is actually Princess Shokora's ugly form from Wario Land 4.

The work safe pin idea comes from the way Smash Bros. deals with Rosalina's upskirt situation. In that series, if you try looking up Rosalina's skirt, all you can see is a star-filled space.

The wooden accessories for hanging on the walls are the Angry Sun from Super Mario Bros. 3 and the 3-Up Moon that was first seen in Super Mario World. The Starman should be obvious.

The Cheesy Drumstick is a recovery item used by Bowser in the 3DS remake of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Chuckola Cola is from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Star Bits are collectibles in the Mario Galaxy series, used for feeding Lumas and making them transform, which is why I decided to reimagine the former as candies here.

The game Yoshi's Wild Safari is a parody of the SNES game Yoshi's Safari, one of the few games on that console played using the Super Scope.

The dragon sculpture Yuugiri saw is Gobblegut from Mario Galaxy 2, and the stuffed toy Ai got is a Fuzzy.

I got the idea of letting Toad say "See you later, losers!" from the YoutTube video Idiot Karts 101, made by SMG4. It is a comical video where Mario tries to get a driving license and also competes with other people to see who is the better driver, one of them being Toad. At the end, Toad drives off to Resident Evil 2's zombie-filled Raccoon City while saying the aforementioned phrase. Ironic thing in this story is that there are zombies racing alongside him as well...

That should be all. Have you actually noticed any of the references before I mentioned them? I'm trying to reach deep into Mario lore and pull out as many references as I can for fun, so look forward to seeing more!

And remember, too much 'shrooms is bad for you!


	10. Saga of Rainbows

It's probably too early to say this, but anyway, some of you may already be wondering how the climax of the story is going to be. All I will say is that it's going to be very action-packed, something we probably will never see in official Zombie Land Saga materials, not counting its Power Ranger-esque opening. I'm very excited about it, and I hope you look forward to it as well!

And for those of you who are waiting for Justice of Two Worlds to update, please wait a bit longer. I'm having a hard time with that story...

 **Chapter 10  
Saga of Rainbows**

* * *

 **BGM: Rainbow Road (Mario Kart 8)**

The race of Rainbow Road was an intense one. The track was full of slopes and turns, so one had to keep his or her eyes up ahead at all times and be ready for any twist and turns. Because of this, it took almost an entire lap before the gap between each racer widened.

As if twisted tracks weren't enough, there were ramps and special "spring" floors that caused racers to bounce into the air, flying over gaps, when they were traveling through the air for a great distance, their gliders would activate to help them get to the other side.

Dry Bomber once again took the lead with his godly snaking skills, but due to the constant twist and turning of the track, he had to focus more on steering than pulling off mini turbos. Because of this, Mario and Saki, both of whom were second and third place respectively, were quite close to catching up with him.

Whenever a single lap was finished, particular sections of the track would rearrange themselves, changing positions and even connecting to other sections. That way, each lap offered a somewhat different experience.

Also, the particular tube positioned vertically was an anti-gravity track.

Sakura was, unsurprisingly, last place. This expert-leveled track was simply too much for her, though for what its worth, she was at least able to maintain a relatively close distance to the person in eleventh place, Flowers.

* * *

After going through the item box, Lily noticed that his screen displayed a mushroom with a particularly large cap. Having never seen this item before, he decided to give it a try right away. Upon tapping the icon, he was surprised to find both himself and his kart growing in size until it was about three times the size of everyone else. "Wow! Cool!" he exclaimed. "Wait... Did my voice just get deeper?"

Toad and Yoyo noticed that something wasn't right when a shadow loomed over them, so they looked back to see the enlarged Lily speeding towards them. They screamed in terror, but before they could get out of the way, Lily collided into them and sent them flying off the track.

"Lily has gotten her hands on a Mega Mushroom! Look at her plow through the track, knocking away everyone!" said the Lakitu.

"Good thing nobody is getting crushed by her!" said the Toad. "For those uninformed, when you use the Mega Mushroom, your kart will generated a small and invisible force field that will repel all those who come near you. That way, there are no worries of running over people and crushing them!"

"The people who made these items sure thought of a lot of things!" said the Lakitu.

Not only did he increase in size, Lily was also able to move faster. In fact, he was easily able to get fourth place with his newfound size. "All right! I like this!" he happily said. He was enjoying knocking away the other racers so much that he almost had a sadistic look on his face.

Looking back, Saki saw Lily approaching. She smirked, however, as she had a way to outrun him using a golden mushroom she had been storing for a while. When the young zombie gradually came close to her, Saki used the golden mushroom multiple times to keep her distance from him. "You're growing up to look more like you father, Masao!" she taunted him.

Lily became offended when he heard this. "Don't call me Masao! Call me Lily!"

"Whoa! Your voice hit puberty as well, Masao!" said Saki upon hearing his new, deeper-sounding voice.

Pissed off, Lily flailed his arms and cried, "I told you to call me Masao, not Lily!" Saki widened her eyes a bit when she heard that, and Lily took a second to realize that he got it wrong. "No! I mean the other way round! Other way..." Unfortunately, he got distracted by this and failed to notice a curve up ahead, so he ended up driving off the track just as the effect of the Mega Mushroom wore off. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

"I'll be seeing you at the finish line, shrimpy!" Saki called out to him while watching him getting caught by a Lakitu.

"I HATE YOU, SAKI!" he angrily shouted as he was being carried back up into the air.

* * *

All the while the audiences glued their eyes to the screen outside the glass window before them. Occasionally, they would look at the track instead, and though it wasn't clear due to the distance, they could still see the racers, looking tiny from where they were, zooming around the racetrack. It wasn't possible to tell who is who because of the distance, however.

"How did they come up with all those... items...?" commented Ai when she witnessed Lily using the Mega Mushroom.

"I'm more surprised that they are capable of making them nonlethal... Things like these would've killed anyone back in our world," said Junko.

"This world sure is full of surprises!" commented Yuugiri.

"Excuse me..." a Koopa Troopa sitting behind them said to them. "Is your friend all right...?" He asked them this while pointing at Tae, who was down on the floor, lying on her side.

The three zombies looked at their mindless companion for a few seconds before Ai said to him, "Don't worry; that's just how she is..."

Suddenly, the sky outside flashed in white light brightly, accompanied by the sound of thunder. Everyone in the audience area jumped in shock, especially Ai, who once again curled up into a ball while trembling in fear after landing. "Toad got and used a lightning bolt!" said the announcer Lakitu.

"WHICH IDIOT THOUGHT USING A LIGHTNING BOLT FOR THIS IS A GOOD IDEA?!" shouted Ai angrily as she looked up.

* * *

 **BGM: Rainbow Road [Final Lap] (Mario Kart 8)**

The race continued on for several minutes, and several laps passed until they were finally down to the final lap. Dry Bomber, Mario, Saki, and Wario were the farthest ahead of everyone. Most of the battle between items happened among the tenth to fifth place, as they were rather close to each other and therefore had better chances of attacking each other.

Sakura was dead last, and by now, she was having little hope of getting even eleventh place. Flowers was performing better than her.

Her friends in the audience area felt bad for her, even though they saw this coming from afar.

Ai then overheard two Yoshis sitting next to her say something. "I just realized... From the stadium till now, nobody has gotten a spiny shell yet," said a blue Yoshi. "Did they remove that item?"

"Don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did," said his companion, a yellow Yoshi. "People did complain about how stupidly overpowered that thing is after all."

"Spiny shell?" wondered Ai while eyeing them slightly and curiously.

* * *

"I'm getting last place for real this time..." cried Sakura as she raced down the multicolored track. She then went through an item box up ahead, hoping to get something that would be of help. She looked at the screen and saw something she had seen before, a blue shell with spikes and wings on it.

When the announcers' computers displayed what item she got, their eyes widened in surprise, and the Toad shouted, "SAKURA'S GOT A SPINY SHELL!"

The audience were at first silent for a few seconds, but then all of them except for the zombies went wild. Jumping up and down in their seats and even getting up to run to the glass window, they all chanted with excitement the term "spiny shell" over and over like it was the most hyped thing in the world.

The zombies were completely taken by surprise by their sudden change behavior, and question marks floated all over their heads. "What... What happened?" asked a freaked out Junko.

Back on the racetrack, Sakura decided to go ahead and see what this new item was. When she tapped the icon, said shell materialized before her kart and then shot forth at an incredibly fast speed, leaving behind a trail of energy as it did so. "Whoa...!"

The moment the spiny shell was fired, something happened to every single racer's screens. The word _WARNING_ appeared on their screens and also displayed the picture of the shell. Upon seeing this message, Lily and Sakura were confused, but as for the other racers, they all displayed different looks on their faces, but all those reactions conveyed one thing: shock.

Luigi pressed his hands against his face and screamed at the top of his voice.

Toad lifted his hands from his steering wheel and shrieked loudly.

Guy flailed his arms all over the place wildly as exclamation marks appeared all over his head.

Mario made a somewhat comical-looking face involving biting his lower lips and baring his upper row of teeth.

Wario's eyes jutted outwards as his biker hat flew into the air, not to mention his hairs sticking up straightly like spikes.

Yoyo's pupils constricted in terror as he opened his mouth widely while sticking out his tongue, which wiggled violently.

Wiggler pressed her hands against her face and screamed in terror, just like Luigi.

Kooper turned pale, completely petrified with shock.

Dry Bomber gritted his teeth while sporting an angry and nervous look on his face.

Luigi and Lily were driving relatively close to each other when this happened, and the latter was surprised by the former screaming out loud, "NOOOOO! NOT THE SPINY SHELL! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

"Wha... What is this thing?!" asked Lily, looking scared. "Is it very dangerous?!"

"THE MOST BROKEN WEAPON IN KART RACING HISTORY! THE MOST TERRIFYING OF THEM ALL! THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM THIS! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" screamed Luigi in terror and despair rather than properly answering Lily's question. The man in green continued to scream as he stepped down on the gas pedal to the max to speed ahead of the zombie.

"Hey! You didn't answer my a question!" Lily cried to him. Suddenly, he heard painful screaming from behind, and he turned around to see Flowers and her kart flying high into the air while spinning nonstop. Even though he still wasn't sure what the spiny shell exactly was, what he saw so far was enough to convince him that he didn't want to get involved with it, so he sped ahead as fast as he could, hoping to avoid this supposedly dreaded weapon.

* * *

Turning to a nervous and even panicking Mario, Saki asked him, "Hey, what is this spiny shell? What's with your shocked reaction just now? Even Dry Bomber looked back with a nervous look earlier!"

Sweating nonstop, Mario said in a serious tone, "Da spiny shell, da most feared item in all da history of kart races... Eet eez a merciless weapon that-a tracks down every single racer in front of da user, striking them with a powerful force and hindering them with enough time for da user to make his way to da first place! It is da person who is in first place who needs to be da most careful, because da spiny shell specifically targets whoever eez in first-a place!"

"Is there no way to avoid it?" asked a rather worried Saki.

"There eez, but theet'z very hard..." replied Mario. "You can avoid-a eet eef you have a Starman, but da chances of getting one eez very rare, and eetz not-a often someone has one when a spiny shell eez fired! Da otha method eez to move out of da way da second you are about to be hit. With correct timing, you might be able to avoid da shell and allow eet to go past you! Quite a few people managed to avoid da spiny shell that-a way.

"However, when eet comes to first place, da chances of avoiding eez borderline impossible... But... Dry Bomber did da impossible... of being the only person in history to ever avoid getting hit by da spiny shell while in first place!"

"What?!" asked Saki in shock.

"The spiny shell attacks da first place racer differently compared to other people," explained Mario. "It simply strikes everyone else from behind, but for da first place, eet will hover above da target for a few seconds before crashing down onto him to create a large explosion enough to render him helpless for several seconds and allowing practically everyone behind him to get past-a him! Yet, Dry Bomber somehow managed to avoid eet once, completely blowing the minds of everyone!"

"How did he dodge it?" asked Saki.

"From what-a I know, he performed a mini boost a millisecond just before he got hit," said Mario. "Somehow, he wuz able to avoid a direct hit and only suffered from getting caught in da explosion, but that-a wasn't enough to stop-a him in his tracks completely. Even so, eet wuz a feat that-a went down into kart racing history!"

"Sounds like a good challenge to undertake if you ask me!" said Saki, looking both nervous and excited about the approaching spiny shell.

* * *

Sakura's mouth opened widely when she witnessed the spiny shell hitting Flower's kart from behind. A blue shockwave was created when the shell struck the Wiggler's kart, sending both it and its driver flying straight up into the air while spinning, and Flowers screamed in terror all the way.

Sakura continued past the Flowers and looked back in time to see her crashing down onto the racetrack, seemingly passed out on the driver's seat. Sakura turned back to the front to see the spiny shell continuing on ahead, this time hitting Koopert and giving him the same fate as Flowers. The Koopa Troopa cried for his mother as he was knocked up high into the air, thus allowing Sakura to continue past him.

"Wow... That thing is powerful!" she thought. After saying that, she went through another item box, and this time she got a Bullet Bill. "Oh! I know this!" Even though she hadn't gotten this item before, she remembered Flower using it when they were racing back in the stadium and therefore had an idea about what it does. She wasted no time in tapping that icon, and when she did so, she "exploded" in a puff of smoke.

When the smoke cleared, in place of Sakura and her Cat Cruiser was a large Bullet Bill that released a large amount of fire from its back as it traveled at a fast speed, making perfect curves and turns to stay on the track.

* * *

Toad, who wasn't too far behind Lily and Luigi, looked back and saw Guy and Yoyo getting taken out by the spiny shell, so he was next in line to get hit. "Oh no you don't!" he said with narrowed eyes. Paying attention to the shell as it approached him, he got ready to steer to the side when it was about to hit him, hoping to avoid it that way.

Too bad he failed, and the air was filled with a high-pitched scream as a result.

Luigi screamed in terror as he saw the spiny shell heading for him next. Before he knew it, he suffered the same fate as the previous victims.

Lily looked in horror as the shell headed for him next. Almost as if acting on instinct, he steered to the side right before the shell hit his kart, and surprisingly, he managed to avoid it. The shell kept on going ahead.

Lily was at a loss of words, completely not believing that he was able to dodge it. "I... I dodged it...?!" he said. However, his celebration was short-lived, as a large Bullet Bill crashed into him from behind and sent him tumbling off the side of the racetrack. "YAAAAAAA!"

* * *

Wario drove with great panic, hoping to escape the spiny shell. He came across an item box and hoped to obtain that one item that could help him defend against the dreaded shell. Luck was with him when he saw that the item he got was a Starman. "Yes! I got it! Now let's see that stupid shell try to..."

Before he could finish, he drove onto a banana peel and went for a spin. When he stopped spinning, he saw that the Starman he just obtained had disappeared. Losing items if one got hit by another item was a common occurrence.

Seeing that his hope of protecting himself from that the spiny shell was gone, Wario's expression became expressionless, the kind that perhaps conveyed he had lost all hope and was ready to embrace death.

...

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

* * *

Dry Bomber was nervous. It was only a matter of time before the spiny shell finally caught up to him. He might have avoided it while in first place once, but even he was surprised himself that he was able to dodge it that time. After that one time, he never succeeded in dodging it again, and this wasn't a risk he wanted to try a second time.

However, if he wasn't in first place, then dodging it would be easier. A smirk appeared on his face as this particular idea came to him. Looking back and seeing Saki behind him, he snickered as he intentionally slowed down his speed, just enough to allow the zombie to go past him.

Saki was surprised by his action and didn't hesitate to go past him. Dry Bomber then looked back just in time to see Mario getting knocked high into the air by the spiny shell. Eyeing the approaching the shell, he readied to steer his vehicle to the side the moment it was going to hit him.

That was then it came to Saki that the Dry Bone intended to let her take the full blow of the spiny shell. Before she could do anything, she saw the spiny shell speeding towards Dry Bomber from behind. Further behind, Mario had just suffered the wrath of the spiny shell and sent high into the air.

A split second before the Dry Bone was hit, he steered to the side fast, and just like that, he was able to escape the wrath of the shell.

"Dry Bomber dodged the spiny shell!" said the announcer Toad in surprise.

"But he only did so because he is in second place. Dodging it is only a massive feat if you are not in first place," said the Lakitu announcer. "He clearly did this on purpose so that he can dodge it more easily and let Saki to take the full force of the shell! Will she be able to pull of a miracle and dodge it?"

Having caught up with Saki, the spiny shell hovered into the air above the zombie and stayed there. Saki sweated nervously as she wondered what to do, and she recalled Mario telling her how Dry Bomber was able to avoid it. "If I can manage to pull this off somehow!" said the zombie in her head while gritting her teeth nervously.

There was a curve up ahead, which she saw as an opportunity. The zombie pulled a power slide to make a sharp turn around the corner and also build up the opportunity to pull off a mini turbo, which Mario told him was how the Dry Bone was able to avoid the spiny shell before.

"I can make it! I can make it!" she told herself. Behind her, the Dry Bomber watched with an "evil" expression, waiting for the shell to come crashing down onto her.

The spiny shell dropped down at a fast speed, and when it was only a millimeter from hitting Saki, she pulled off a mini turbo at the exact right time and...

A large blue explosion was created when the spiny shell struck... the empty racetrack, and it propelled the zombie and her bike forward with its force.

This incredible feat was captured on video for all to see. Immediately, the audiences went completely wild. Everyone jumped up from his or her seats while cheering and clapping hands like crazy, exclaiming about the miracle that happened.

The two announcers' eyes popped out of their eye sockets while their mouths dropped to the floor completely. "CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! SAKI SUCCESSFULLY DODGED THE SPINY SHELL WHILE IN FIRST PLACE!" shouted the Lakitu.

"THIS IS A MIRACLE! THIS IS SOMETHING WE THOUGHT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN AFTER DRY BOMBER DID IT THE FIRST TIME BUT KEPT ON FAILING AFTERWARDS!" exclaimed Toad. "SAKI NIKAIDO IS THE SECOND PERSON IN HISTORY TO SUCCESSFULLY DODGE THE BLUE SHELL WHILE IN FIRST PLACE!"

Even though they still didn't understand the detail of things, Ai, Junko, and Yuugiri were nevertheless impressed about their companion's feat. "Way to go, Lady Saki!" called out Yuugiri.

"Come on, Saki! You can do it! You can get first place!" shouted Ai.

Saki threw one arm into the air in triumph while sporting the largest smile she had ever made on her mouth. "All right! Who's a legend now?"

Behind her, Dry Bomber growled angrily. His plan to make her get hit by the spiny shell so that he could easily overtake her and get first place was foiled. Never would he have thought that she would be able to dodge it. There was no reason to hold back any longer, so he stepped on the gas pedal to the max to catch up with her... only to be knocked aside and all the way off the racetrack when a large Bullet Bill crashed into him from behind.

The Bullet Bill caught up close to Saki before exploding in a puff of smoke, and Sakura emerged from it. Looking back, Saki said in surprise, "Sakura?! When did you get here?!"

"Mind if I take first place?" the red-haired zombie asked her companion with an ambitious grin.

Grinning back, Saki replied, "You're still a hundred years to early to be beating a veteran biker like me! Try your best if you can!"

Sakura sped forward as as she could until she was able to catch up with Saki. The two zombies glared at each other as they traveled the fastest they could. The finish line was just up ahead, and it was only a matter of seconds before they would reach it. Both drivers leaned forward as far as they could, hoping to get past the line first.

"Saki and Sakura are both in lead and getting to the finish line!" said the Lakitu. "Which of them will make it?"

The audiences were all feeling tense and leaning forward to watch the screen before them, which showed the point of view from the finish line. The three intelligent zombies present among them were equally tense. Because both their companions were fighting for first place, they didn't know who to root for. All they could do was bite their lips and wait in anticipation for the outcome of the race.

Saki and Sakura got closer and closer to getting to the finish line. Just when it looked like they were going to touch it together and result in a draw, Sakura pulled off a move that surprised everyone. Grabbing the back end of her hair, Sakura yanked off her head and swung it forward like a mace.

 **BGM Ends**

Both vehicles went past the finish line a second after that and then came to a stop. They both panted heavily, wondering who actually won the race. Sakura, still holding her head in her hand, turned to look at a large screen that was located nearby and saw that the camera placed at the finish line was able to capture the exact moment they crossed the line.

The captured footage showed that her head went ahead of Saki's bike and past the finish line first.

"A part of Sakura's body went past the line first, so the winner is... SAKURA MINAMOTO!" said the Lakitu loudly.

The audience immediately stood up and cheered loudly while clapping their hands. The zombies there also jumped up and did the same thing. Even Tae jumped up and clapped her hands over her head while making zombie sounds, though it was questionable whether or not she truly understood what she was doing or if she was simply mimicking everyone else. "Sakura won first place! I can't believe it!" exclaimed Junko.

"Lady Sakura sure is full of surprises!" said Yuugiri.

"Never would've thought she would use that method... But anyway, good for her!" said Ai happily.

* * *

Sakura put her head back onto her neck just as Saki approached her with a displeased look. Seeing the blonde zombie's expression, Sakura was scared that she was angry for not getting first place, but then Saki placed her arm over her shoulders and happily said to her, "Ya did great, Sakura! Congratulations on beating me!"

"For a moment, I thought you were going to hit me for stealing your spot..." said Sakura in relief.

"Why would I be angry at you? Your performance is so amazing that it deserves praise!" Saki told her.

Soon, the rest of the racers arrived at the finish line. The ranking was as followed:

Sakura  
Saki  
Mario  
Wario  
Dry Bomber  
Lily  
Luigi  
Toad  
Yoyo  
Guy  
Koopert  
Flowers

Getting out of his car, Mario ran up to Sakura and Saki and said to them, "Mamamia! You both did-a great!" Looking at Saki, he said to her, "I can't-a believe that-a you dodged da spiny shell!"

"It's thanks to your advice!" said Saki. "Your info helped me greatly!"

Mario then looked at Sakura. "Congratulations on getting first-a place! You made a huge comeback! You were lucky that da Bullet Bill lasted that-a long! Eet'z rare for them to carry da user theez far! They usually only carry you to fourth or third place. You were lucky!"

"Luck really isn't something I'm known for, but I'm glad things happened differently for once!" said Sakura happily.

Wario approached them with a grumpy look at first, but then he laughed. "Hahaha! I can't believe that I am actually happy that I didn't win! Because I actually managed to beat that pile of bones!" He said that while pointing at a pissed off Dry Bomber, who was glaring in their direction. "Seeing him lose makes up for everything!"

"Hope you're happy about it!" Saki said to him.

Wario approached Sakura and asked her, "You're the reason he didn't win, right? Good going, girl!" He then gave her a slap to the back of her neck so hard that her head fell off and rolled onto the floor. He jumped back in slight shock and then looked at the head, which stared back at him. "So you really are a zombie..."

"You only believe that for real now?" Saki asked him.

"The zombies I've encountered like throwing their heads at me, so seeing your friend's head falling off is all the proof I need you girls are indeed zombies," said Wario as Sakura picked up her head and put it back on.

"I'm glad to be of help!" Sakura said to him.

All of the other racers except for Dry Bomber then surrounded Saki and Sakura, all of them praising them.

"You dodged the spiny shell in first place?! Impossible!" Yoyo said to Saki.

"Congratulations on getting first place! And just so you know, I have no hard feelings towards you using the spiny shell!" Flowers said to Sakura.

"Your performances were so awesome that I can't get angry at you!" Koopert said to them both.

"Bravo! Bravo!" said Guy.

Toad said to Lily, "I saw you dodging the spiny shell! Good going on that!"

"I'm still surprised I managed to pull it off!" said the latter.

"Let us give it a hand to Sakura and Saki, the former for getting first place and the latter for avoiding the spiny shell while in first place!" said the announcer Lakitu.

Everyone clapped hands and cheered for the two zombies, and staff members at the place also rushed over to take pictures of them. The zombies waved at them triumphantly and thanked them for their praises.

As the audiences were clapping, the yellow Yoshi said to the zombies sitting next to him, "Those are your friends, right? They're awesome!"

"You can say they are legends!" Ai told him with a smile.

* * *

Having finished the race on Rainbow Road and finishing their purpose there, all the racers and audiences returned to the space shuttle, which descended back on Earth, landing on an empty lot designed for it. Said lot was located close to MK Stadium.

One by one, the passengers got out of the shuttle, most of them talking about how much fun they had while in the intergalactic shopping wall and racetrack.

The zombies stepped down as well, and Lily jumped up and down while saying, "We're back on Earth! Perfect landing! Yay!" Tae, in an act of mimicking her, also jumped up and down while making a cheerful-sounding cry.

Junko let out a sigh and said, "I'm glad we landed properly... I still can't get used to plane rides... or anything that flies for that matter..."

"Plane technology is more advanced than before, so I'm sure the chances of accidents are much lesser than before," Sakura told her while patting her shoulder.

"Your death really left a mark on you, didn't it?" Toad asked her.

"Trust me; I still get shivers thinking about the time when the plane was falling through the air..." Junko said to him in a scared tone. "It's... It's a dreadful experience I will never forget...!"

"Sorry for asking..." apologized Toad.

They all returned to MK stadium, and once there, Wario said to the zombies and Mario and co., "Been quite a day! I think I'll call it a day now. Gotta be getting back to Diamond City tomorrow and do something about the pays, or else they're never going to let me hear the end of it... Not like it bothers me, though."

"This wouldn't happen if you pay them properly all the time, and it's not like you're short on cash..." Luigi said to him.

"You wouldn't know a thing about running a business!" Wario said to him, and then he looked at the zombies. "By the way, heard ya came from another world using a warp pipe, right? They nodded in response. "Then good luck finding your way home. That's all I can say to ya."

"Thanks! And good luck returning to your home too!" Sakura said to him.

"Sucks that you folks died so young, but... doesn't look like it matters anymore now that you are technically back to life, right?" Wario said to them. "Maybe if you had tougher bodies like mines, you'd survive whatever killed you in the first place!"

"Lily is much happier being a zombie! Now Lily can now be cute forever!" Lily told him.

"I think we have a much tougher body now!" Saki said to him. "But still, I have to give it to you for being a tough guy, if all your survival claims are true."

"Ha! You don't even know the half of it! I'm easily the toughest guy you'll ever meet!" boasted Wario. "Let me remind ya! If I don't feel like dying, I ain't dying, no matter how much the grim reaper wants me to die! Plane crash, hit by a train, crushed by boulders, set on fire, electrocuted, falling from great heights! I'll be living to see another day and tell the tale even after all those, I tell ya!" After saying that, he got onto his bike. "Well, it's been interesting knowing you girls!"

"Come to think of it, you're not a bad guy yourself!" Saki said to him with a grin. "If we get the chance, we should see who has more tricks with the bike!"

"Ha! You're too young to be facing against me!" boasted Wario. He started the engines and began to take off. "So long, zombies! Welcome to the land of the living!" He then took off, performing a wheelie as he did so.

Immediately after exiting the stadium grounds and entering the street, a bus crashed into him, causing him to fly forward and screaming in pain. All those who saw this were horrified, especially Sakura.

Wario immediately stood back up like nothing happened and yelled at the bus driver, "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"

The bus driver, a Toad, looked out the window and yelled, "You again?! Falling off the bridge and getting hit once wasn't enough?!"

Mario and co. watched Wario and bus driver argue, and thinking that the former was probably all right and didn't need help or their attention, Mario turned to the zombies and said to them, "Hope you had a fun day today!"

"You bet! What a blast!" said Saki happily. "Man! You people sure know how to have fun!"

"Lily had lots of fun, even though she didn't perform all that well," said Lily, and then he lifted the Luma plush. "aND Lily is happy that she got this!"

"I'm happy to have bought lots of new clothes too!" said Junko while showing everyone a bag full of clothes. "I can't wait to try them out!"

Looking up at the sky, Ai said, "I still can't believe that we actually went to space and back... What a day!"

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm beat and feel like going home..." said Toad while massaging his shoulder. "Driving all day really wore me out..."

"Right," agreed Mario with a nod. "Let's-a go back to Mushroom Kingdom."

As they were leaving, Yoyo and his friends came up to them, and he said to Mario, "Mario! Just want to let you know that it is an honor to meet you in person! Yoshi spoke well of you!"

"Yoshi? You're his friend?" Mario asked him.

"More like everyone back on Yoshi's Island knows who he is," said Yoyo. "He is something of a celebrity back home after all!"

"Oh right," said Mario. "So how has he been lately?"

"He's doing great!" said Yoyo. "Though I think he sort of misses you, so maybe if you feel like it and have time, you can visit him on Yoshi's Island? There's been quite a lot of new attractions on Yoshi's Island as of late, so maybe you'll want to check that place out! Anyway, me and my friends have somewhere else to go, so see you around!" The three Yoshis then walked away while waving good-bye to him and his friends.

After waving good-bye to them, Mario said, "Hmmmm... Maybe we can pay Yoshi's Island a visit." He then turned to the zombies. "You interested in going there?"

"Yoshi's Island?" said Sakura curiously.

"A good friend of mine lives there," Mario told her. "Saw the three dinosaurs just-a now? They are called Yoshis, and an entire species live on that island. It's quite a popular tourist attraction."

"In that case, let's go!" said Saki with enthusiasm. "I can't wait to see what more awesomeness this world has to offer!"

"Lily wants to go to!" said Lily, raising the Luma plush over his head.

Mario nodded with a smile. "Okey dokey! Tomorrow, let's-a go to Yoshi's Island!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Again, trying to type out a race isn't easy, so I apologize if you find it somewhat underwhelming and that too many parts were skipped.

I had fun doing the spiny shell part. Every Mario Kart player knows how terrifying that item is. Yes, the speaker item in Mario Kart 8 can be used to counter it, but I intentionally left it out in order to make the shell even more unstoppable, on top of purposely making it target everyone in front of the user and not simply the racer in first place.

The actual method to avoid the spiny shell in that game is to jump at the right moment, right before the shell hits you. I managed to pull it off only once.

Anyway, congratulations to Sakura for getting first place! And that's the end of the zombies' kart racing experience!

Next up, they're off to Yoshi's Island! Let's see what adventure they're going to have there!


	11. Welcome to Yoshi's Island!

**Chapter 11  
Welcome to Yoshi's Island!**

* * *

After returning to Toad Town from a long day being involved kart racing, Franchouchou returned to their room in Peach's Castle. Not long after returning, Lily begged Yuugiri to open up to the box containing the mysterious item she bought.

Placing the box on her bed, Yuugiri opened it, while the others watched with interest. She took out of the box a wooden sculpture of a beautiful woman with whitish-blonde hair that covered one of her eyes wearing a blue dress. Said sculpture was placed on a wooden box with a wind-up on one side.

"What do you think of this?" the courtesan asked her friends.

"Wow! It's beautiful!" said Lily, lightly poking the sculpture's body.

"The efforts put into carving out all the details and the painting applied to give it a realistic look... I was amazed by such handiwork that I couldn't resist buying it!" said Yuugiri. "And this is not all." She then turned the wind-up a few times, and when she was done, the sculpture began spinning slowly, while music played from the wooden box.

It was the Comet Observatory theme from the Mario Galaxy series.

The zombies watched with smiles on their faces at the sculpture as it spun, all the while enjoying the peaceful music box-style tune that was being played.

"What a nice and peaceful-sounding theme!" commented Sakura.

"Did you ask who this woman is? Or is she just an original creation of the sculptor?" Junko asked Yuugiri.

"I did ask, and according to the seller, this is a sculpture of a goddess named Rosalina," replied Yuugiri. "She's not a myth, but an actual entity. A true goddess whose existence has been witnessed by people before!"

The zombies were amazed to hear this. "An actual goddess? Wow...!" said Junko in awe.

"No wonder she's so beautiful! She's a goddess, that's why!" said Lily.

"This world continues to surprise me! An actual goddess that people actually saw with their own eyes? That's crazy, and in an awesome way!" said Saki. "Tomorrow's going to be even more fun! We're going to an island inhabited by dinosaurs! I bet dinosaur fans back in our world are going to be so jealous of us!"

"It's been a lot of fun being here and all, but I'm once again reminded of how we are going to get home..." said Ai. "It's been three days since we're here. I have a feeling that Tatsumi is returning soon..."

"It can't be helped if there is no way back at the moment," Saki told her. "All we can do is wait until we get an answer how."

"I'm honestly, I feel wrong living in this castle all the time," said Junko. "I mean... we're basically freeloaders..."

"I'm aware... This feels wrong to me too... Commoners like us really shouldn't have the right to live in a royalty's place," agreed Ai. "We only agreed to do so because we think we won't be staying long, but if the way back home really does take a long time to be found..."

The others agreed with this. They couldn't stay in this world forever or even live in the castle forever. They weren't sure what Peach was feeling about letting them live here, but if word gets out that the princess was allowing commoners to freeload in her castle for a long time, they feared that it would bring bad reputation to her.

As much as they were having fun in this world and living in this castle with great comfort, they still hoped that they would be able to get back to their world as soon as possible.

* * *

Kotaro wasn't having a good day.

He was actually supposed to return to Saga today, after having dealt with idol business and finished having fun touring Tokyo. Unfortunately, he fell ill, so much that he had to go to the hospital. He was diagnosed with a rather serious illness and had to be hospitalized for a few days.

Left with no choice, the producer surrendered himself to one of the ward rooms and rested on his bed, occasionally coughing and sneezing, all the while feeling dizzy and pain all over his body.

As he laid down on his bed, he wondered if he "beloved" zombies were all right back in their mansion. There was no way he could contact them, as their mansion didn't have telephones. He could send a mail to his computer using his smartphone, but that would mean they have to open his mail account, but they don't know his email and password.

Therefore, there was no way he could get in touch with the zombies, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for not letting them know this.

"I hope they won't miss me too much..." he told himself.

* * *

The next morning, Franchouchou received Peach's blessing as they left with Mario to Toad Town's harbor. Along with Luigi, the group got tickets for the boat headed for Yoshi's Island. It was a boat ride that would take about forty minutes to reach its destination. They brought Romero along as well.

The boat ride was smooth and fun one, at least for the zombies, as none of them had ridden a boat before, even when they were alive.

All seven of them had makeups on this time. Because they were going to a new area that haven't heard of them yet, they decided to play it safe in case the people there would be afraid of what they are and their appearances. Mario did tell them that he contacted Yoshi beforehand that they were zombies, though.

Also, with the exception of Junko, they were all wearing the same clothes Peach provided for them since the beginning. The servants washed and dried them in a single night. Junko was wearing a light green sleeveless dress she bought at Rainbow Road yesterday.

Standing on the deck, the zombies enjoyed the beautiful view of the endless span of sea before them, all the while enjoying the light and cool breeze that brought comfort to them. Even the sun shining down onto them didn't make them feel hot, but then, they couldn't feel hot or cold too much now that they were zombies.

"Look! Dolphins!" said Lily happily while pointing to a group of dolphins some distance from the boat, swimming and jumping in the same direction it was moving at. Said dolphins were all wearing scuba masks.

"What's with those scuba masks? Are they tamed and belong to someone?" asked Ai when she noticed those headgear.

"Actually, that species of dolphin always have scuba masks on, and scientists are still baffled as to why they have it in the first place," Mario told her.

Sakura noticed that Tae was drooling as the latter watched the dolphins. "No, Tae, you can't eat dolphins," Sakura told her. "They're nice and kind animals you should treat with love, so eating them is wrong!"

"You do realize that dolphin meat is a thing back in Japan, right?" Ai asked her.

Sakura was surprised to hear this. "Really?! I didn't know that!"

"It's true, but there are controversies regarding using them as food, so it's rare that you'll come across dolphin meat being sold and eaten," explained Ai.

"They have dolphin meat on Yoshi's Island as well," Luigi told them. "Maybe we can try it out when we're there."

The thought of cute and friendly dolphins being cooked and put onto plates to be served made Sakura shudder. "I think I'll pass..." she said.

"Look! A whale!" shouted Lily excitedly while jumping up and down. Everyone looked at where the dolphins were and saw that they had left, while a blue bump appeared on the water surface, shooting water from a hole on top of it, close to the front part. A tail could also be seen sticking out of the water behind it.

"Now that's-a what I call a rare sight!" said Mario while pulling out his smartphone to snap a picture of it.

Everyone watched in awe at the whale shooting water high into the air, and when the droplets flew across the air, a miniature rainbow was seen, amazing the tourists even more. "Wow! It's so beautiful!" commented Junko in awe.

* * *

After about forty minutes, the boat finally arrived at Yoshi's Island. After docking at the harbor, the passengers all stepped down and were greeted with the sight of a large amount of Yoshis wandering around the place. There were some other species as well, but Yoshis were the most common, as well as Shy Guys.

"Here we are, Yoshi's Island!" Mario said to the zombies.

The group walked through the place, and there were some Yoshis who greeted them when they arrived and even gave them brochures and maps of the island to serve as guides.

"We're supposed to meet-a Yoshi here, right?" Luigi asked Mario, and the latter nodded.

"Maybe I should call him," said Mario as he took out a smartphone, but then someone called him, so he looked up to see a green Yoshi approaching him.

"Mario! You're here at last!" said the Yoshi happily. He ran up to the plumber in red and embraced him. "I miss you so much! It's been a month since we've met!"

"I miss you too, Yoshi!" Mario said to him. "How's everything?"

"He talks like a month is a long time..." said Ai.

"Yoshi is a bit sensitive when it comes to relations..." Luigi told her.

"Everything is fine, like always!" said Yoshi. "It's been very peaceful here on Yoshi's Island!" He then looked Franchouchou and said, "Are those your friends you told me about?"

Mario nodded and then pointed at them. "Yes, they are the ones I told you about on LINE."

Each of the zombies then introduced themselves to Yoshi. As for Tae, Sakura helped introduced her. After they were done introducing themselves, Yoshi cheerfully shook each of their hands. "It is so nice to meet you all!" he said to them. "Any friend of Mario is also my friend! Welcome to Yoshi's Island!"

"Mario told you that we are zombies, right?" Sakura asked him.

Yoshi nodded. "Yes, he did, but like I said, any friend of Mario is also my friend, so to me, you are good people, regardless of what you are! Though for zombies, you look... very human..."

"We covered ourselves in makeup in case our true appearances are a bit too repulsive for the people here..." Ai explained to him.

"You all look very beautiful, so I'm sure you look good without your makeups as well!" said Yoshi. Hearing this made the zombies blush, happy that they were praised by him like this. "Okay, now that you're here, me and my friends will take you on a tour to some of the more fun places! I'm going to make sure you have a blast today!"

Yoshi then pointed to his friends, all of whom were Yoshis of various colors. The Yoshis waved at them and said they were happy to meet them.

"Where do we go first?" Mario asked him.

"Let's see... Since you're girls, and girls like flowers, why don't we got to the flower field first? It's a popular place for people who like flowers and all things nature!" suggested Yoshi.

"Sounds good to me!" said Ai with a nod.

The Yoshis then turned their back to them, and Yoshi pointed at the saddle on his back. "C'mon! Hop on! We'll take you there!"

"Okey dokey!" said Mario as he got onto Yoshi's back, while Luigi got onto the back of a light blue Yoshi.

The zombies were curious to see this, and Sakura asked, "You're letting us ride on you?"

Yoshi nodded. "Yoshis are born to let people ride on! Don't worry; we have the strength of horses, so you won't hinder us at all when you ride us! I guarantee that it's going to be a great experience!"

"If you don't mind!" said Lily as he ran up to a pink Yoshi and hopped onto his back. "It's surprisingly comfortable!"

"It really is!" said Sakura after getting onto a red Yoshi.

Each of the zombies got onto a Yoshi. Saki rode a black Yoshi, Ai got onto a dark blue one, Junko got onto a yellow one, Yuugiri rode an orange one with Romero sitting on her lap, and Tae rode a brown one.

"Grab onto our necks and heads tightly," Yoshi told the riders. "Don't worry about strangling us or anything. Like I said earlier, we Yoshis are designed to carry people, so we can handle things like that!"

Sakura told Tae to hold onto the Yoshi the latter was riding on tightly. Tae nodded, but then she held onto her Yoshi's neck a bit too tightly, resulting in the dinosaur gasping for air. "No, Tae! That's too tight! Don't use so much power!" Sakura desperately told her.

After making sure that everyone was seated on properly, Yoshi told his friends to set off. All the Yoshis then ran at a fast speed, avoiding anyone and anything in their paths. Their riders held on tightly onto their bodies to not fall off and felt the cool wind blowing into their faces as the dinosaurs sped through the place.

"Woohoo! This is like riding a bike!" exclaimed Saki. "I love it!"

"Lily loves this!" exclaimed Lily.

"I knew you would-a love eet!" Mario said to them.

The dinosaurs continued to speed through the place until they came to a less populated place and also one with lesser architecture. Trees and flowers, not to mention wildlife, became more common.

"We're almost there! Hang on tight!" said Yoshi.

The dinosaurs headed towards a cliff and didn't seem to have any intention to stop. Realizing this, Junko cried out, "There's a cliff up ahead!"

"I know, and we're going to jump!" replied the Yoshi she was riding on.

"What?!" replied the zombie in shock.

All the riders except Mario, Luigi, and Tae had looks of shocks on their faces as the Yoshis leaped off the cliff, and some of them screamed.

Spreading out their arms, the Yoshis began flapping them like wings as fast as they could and also kicked their legs so fast that it gave the illusion that they have multiple legs. By doing this, they were somehow able to slow down their falls.

"Wow! You guys can fly?!" said Saki in surprise as she held onto her Yoshi.

"This isn't flying. This is fluttering!" replied the latter.

The zombies were in awe as the Yoshis slowly descended through the air with their so-called fluttering. Junko, however, wasn't taking this as easily as the others.

Looking down to see that there was still a bit of a distance to the bottom, her fear of heights kicked in, making her scream while tightening her grip on her Yoshi's neck. This caused the dinosaur to gasp for air and resulted in him being unable to flutter properly, so they ended up falling straight down while screaming.

Seeing this, Sakura cried in shock, "JUNKO!"

There was nothing any of them could do as they hit the flower field below. Flower petals were kicked into the air as a result.

The other Yoshis eventually landed safely, and everyone rushed over to see if those two were all right. The yellow Yoshi was groaning in pain while lying on his front, while Junko had fallen on her side next to him and sitting back up.

"Are you two all right?" Yoshi asked them in panic. The yellow Yoshi gave a thumb up in response.

"I'm fine..." replied Junko.

"She'll be fine," said Saki. "She's a zombie, so she can't really feel pain and even die, at least not so easily."

Sakura helped Junko stand back up, and the latter apologized to the yellow Yoshi, who also stood back up. "I'm sorry... I have a fear of heights, so I freaked out and grabbed you too tightly."

"I should be apologizing. It's our fault for not warning you beforehand that we're going to do something like this," the Yoshi told her. "Plus, I'm fine, and that's great news!"

"Yep! Nobody is hurt, which is great news!" said Yoshi, and then he pointed his hand at the flower field before them. "Anyway, we're here at the flower field! Behold!"

The zombies looked and were amazed at the endless span of flowers before them. Flowers of various kinds and colors could be seen everywhere, some taller than the others.

Some flowers were moving on their own, and upon closer inspection, they turned out to be Crazee Dayzees.

There were also Shy Guys wandering around, some of them playing with flowers. A couple of them made a "wigs" out of flowers and were wearing them.

"Wow! It's so beautiful!" commented Sakura.

"Feel free to pick whatever you want! It's free!" Yoshi told the zombies.

Just then, they noticed something moving underneath the flowers and towards them. When the thing emerged from the flowers, it was a white dog with brown spots and, strangely, no ears. The dog barked cheerfully while jumping and down in front of them.

"Poochy! It's so nice to see you!" said the dark blue Yoshi as he petted the dog.

"He's so cute!" commented Lily.

"Is it your pet?" Yuugiri asked the dark blue Yoshi.

"Poochy belongs to everyone," he replied. "He comes and goes as he pleases. He is a friend of everyone on this island! Say hello to these girls, Poochy!"

Poochy went up to Lily, who bent down to pet him. The dog stood up slightly and placed his front paws onto the young zombie's knees and then gave him a lick to the side of his face. "Oh, stop that! Hee hee!" said Lily while giggling.

Pooch then got down and turned his attention to Romero, who came up to him. The two dogs them sniffed each other in the rear end, like all dogs do when they meet, and then they stuck out their tongues while looking at each other and wagging their tails cheerfully.

"Oh look! Romero's found a friend!" said Saki, feeling happy for him.

The two dogs ran in circles, chasing each other, and then ran off across the flower field. "Have fun and don't run too far!" Sakura called out to Romero.

Ai then noticed something about Lily's face and said to him, "Lily... Your makeup... It came off a bit at the side..."

Lily touched the left side of his face and saw that it was still wet from getting licked by Poochy. Even though he couldn't see it himself, hearing what Ai said was enough to convince him that the dog licked off that part of the makeup. The zombie freaked out, which caused his heart to burst out of his body and beat rapidly.

Seeing this, the Yoshis jumped back in shock, and Lily desperately squeezed it back into his body. After it was back inside, Lily said with embarrassment, "Sorry you had to see that..."

"That was... surreal..." commented the pink Yoshi.

Even though his makeup hadn't completely disappeared off his face, Lily was still nervous and scared that the Yoshis' opinions towards him would change after seeing his heart literally coming out of his body. Noticing the nervous look on his face, Yoshi said to him, "It's all right. It's not like you're suddenly going to attack us just because your makeup came off. Accidents happen all the time, so we're still good!"

"Yeah, so long as you're not like Zombie Guys, we're all good!" said the black Yoshi.

When the zombies and the Mario Bros. heard this, they were curious. "Zombie Guys?" asked Mario.

"Zombie Shy Guys, that is," explained the orange Yoshi. "They were spotted about a month ago at an old mansion. Since then, that place has been swarming with these zombie Shy Guys that apparently never leave that place."

"Whoa! You have zombies here as well?" asked Saki, sounding interested.

Yoshi nodded. "Some people went to investigate the Zombie Guys to see if they are dangerous and capable of communication. Attempts at getting contact with them turned up... fruitless... The Zombie Guys are, as far as we're concerned, completely mindless and attack anyone living. But still, they are not actually dangerous due to their slow movements, so it's easy to outrun them. Plus, as said earlier, they never leave the mansion grounds, always coming to a stop and turning around when they reach the border."

"Because of this, we've decided to leave them alone, but there are still Yoshis on guard duty there to make sure nothing goes wrong," said the brown Yoshi.

"They seem to be only active at night, because during the day, they burrow underground or stay inside the mansion, completely motionless," said Yoshi. "If you want to, we'll take you to that place to check them out. Don't worry; as long as you don't cross into the mansion grounds, you're safe. Plus, we can always fight back in case they get too dangerous."

"Sounds scary... I think I'll pass..." said Luigi, shuddering at the thought of it.

"Sounds scary to me as well..." said Junko slight fear.

"Isn't that ironic coming from you...?" Saki said to her.

"Anyway, we can talk about that later today, so for now, please enjoy to your fullest!" Yoshi said while pointing at the flower field.

 **BGM: Flower Garden (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island)**

Everyone then walked out to the flower field to find things to do.

Lily and Yuugiri bent down among some flowers and began picking them to make accessories out of them. Lily showed off a flower wreath he made to Yuugiri happily and offered to put it over her head. Yuugiri smiled and said that she loves it, and then she showed him a flower necklace she made, which she proceeded to put around his neck. He also loves it and thanked her for the beautiful gift.

Sakura picked several flowers, enough to form a bouquet, and showed it to Tae. The latter stared at it for a few seconds before opening her mouth wide and chomped on the whole thing. Sakura stared at her with a displeased look in response. She then felt someone tapping her shoulder, so she turned around to see Ai standing there, looking proud with a hair full of flowers.

Ai asked Sakura if she looks good like this. The latter thought she looks awkward having so many flowers of varying sizes and colors all over her hair, but wanting to sound nice, she told her that she looks great. But then a Shy Guy standing not too far away pointed at Ai and laughed, saying she looks like a clown.

Junko and Luigi were bent down in front of a Crazee Dayzee, the former looking at it with awe and curiosity. The sentient flower also looked back at them with a face that showed curiosity. Junko slowly reached out her hand, hoping to touch it. The Crazee Dayzee, however, moved back from her a bit before running off, leaving behind a rather sad-looking Junko, while Luigi comforted her.

Meanwhile, Poochy and Romero were still running around the flower field, playing a game of tag and occasionally hide-and-seek.

Saki was wandering around the flower field with a rather bored look. She was never into flowers, so to her, this place wasn't anything special. After a bit of walking around, she noticed something peculiar. Upon closer inspection, it was a plant-like creature with a large mouth full of sharp teeth, rooted to the soil.

"What's that...?" she wondered.

Yoshi and Mario came forward, and the latter said, "A Piranha Plant!"

"That wasn't there a few days ago," said Yoshi. "Man, these things grow fast..."

"Piranha Plant?" asked Saki curiously.

"Dangerous, carnivorous plants that eat anything that moves," Mario told her. "They should be avoided at all cost unless you have a way to deal with them."

"We should get rid of that thing," suggested Yoshi. "The next thing we want are visitors to this place wandering too close and getting attacked..."

"How are you going to get rid of it?" Saki asked the dinosaur.

"Watch and learn!" Yoshi told her. "Actually, just watch, because you can't learn what I'm doing..." He then looked to the side and saw a Crazee Dayzee standing there. Quick as a flash, Yoshi lashed out his long, sticky tongue and caught the sentient flower by its face before pulling it into his mouth, swallowing it a whole, a move that shocked Saki. An instant, the green dinosaur laid out an egg about half the size of himself.

Yoshi picked up the freshly laid egg and took aim at the Piranha Plant before chucking it at the plant. The egg collided with the Piranha Plant and exploded like a miniature firework. Just like that, the Piranha Plant was blasted off the soil and fell to the ground, where it cried in pain while writhing around until it finally stopped moving.

"There! That's how you deal with weeds like them!" said Yoshi, looking smug while dusting his hands.

"Wha... What the...?! Did you just eat that flower thing, laid an egg, and then threw it at that Piranha whatever...?!" said Saki, still trying to comprehend what she just saw.

Mario nodded. "Yoshis are known for their ability to eat almost anything, even things larger than them, and lay out eggs instantly to use as weapons."

"Yep! That's how we are!" Yoshi told her.

"Does that mean you're female?" Saki asked him.

"Nah, I'm male," Yoshi told her, which confused her. "You see, Yoshis of both sexes can lay eggs, but only females' eggs can hatch into babies, while eggs laid by males are used as tools and weapons like you saw just now."

"Wow! That's cool and interesting!" commented the zombie.

"Oh yeah, speaking of eggs, they're also a delicacy!" said Yoshi.

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

After they were done having fun in the flower field, the Yoshis took them all to a restaurant to eat. The restaurant was an outdoor one, with a roof made of leaves providing shade for the customers. All the while, Poochy took Romero out somewhere to find something to eat, since they don't serve dogs in this place.

The zombies were treated with delicacies such as assortment of berries found only on Yoshi's Island, Yoshi eggs prepared in various methods, and even dolphin meat. Even though Sakura previously said she wouldn't want to eat dolphin meat, she still ended up eating it.

"Wow! These are good!" commented Ai after trying out all the dishes on the table.

Yoshi, who was sitting alongside other Yoshis on another table, looked at them and said, "Good to know that you like our cuisine!"

"You know, I find it strange that you are okay with eating the egg of your own species..." Lily said to them. "It's cannibalism, isn't it...?"

"Oh, it's normal among us," Yoshi told him. "Not like it has negative effect on health or anything."

"Yoshis eat more or less anything, so this is perfectly normal for them," Luigi said to the zombies. He and Mario were sitting with those seven.

After dining for a while, a Shy Guy waiter brought them platters of watermelon with red and blue skins. The zombies were curious as to why these watermelons have unique-looking skins. "What's with these odd-looking watermelons?" asked Sakura.

Looking back at them from his table, Yoshi explained, "Those are red and blue watermelons. If you eat the red one, your breath will become hot and can even breathe fire. Eating the blue one will cool down your breath to the point you can freeze things! Just make sure not to breathe too hard, or else things may get a bit disastrous. Red watermelons are banned from eating indoors for this particular reason, mind you."

"Really? Sounds cool!" said Saki. She wasted no time in grabbing a red watermelon and took a few bites out of it. After that, she breathed lightly, and to her and her friends' surprise, a small puff of fire came out from her mouth. "Wow! It's true!"

"Lily wants to try it too!" said Lily as he grabbed a blue watermelon and took a few bites out of it. He then breathed at his glass of water, and to his surprise, the water turned to ice. "Wow! Awesome!"

"Bet you don't have anything like this back in your world, eh?" said Luigi as he ate a blue watermelon. He then breathed into a air to make create snowflakes that slowly floated down.

"Wow! So beautiful!" commented Junko. The plumber felt proud showing off like this.

Tae grabbed a red watermelon and chomped down the whole thing in a single bite, skin and all. When she tried swallowing it, she choked. "Tae! You should've chewed properly before you swallow!" said Sakura desperately as she got up and patted Tae's back to help her swallow.

Tae eventually coughed... a large amount of fire that burned the table. The zombies and the Mario Bros. freaked out and jumped back, and everyone in the restaurant freaked out as well. Everyone panicked and screamed about the fire.

"FIRE!"

"SOMEONE PUT IT OUT FAST!"

"CALL THE FIRE TRUCK!"

That day, the lawmakers of Yoshi's Island seriously considered banning red watermelons from restaurants as a whole.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Here we are at Yoshi's Island! I'm sure they will all have a peaceful time here, right?

Zombie Guys are new enemies that will appear in the upcoming Yoshi's Crafted World. Because they're zombies, and the protagonists are zombies, I simply have to throw the former into this story one way or the other, even if it's just a name drop, or else it would seem like a waste of opportunity.

Red and blue watermelons are power-ups in the Yoshi's Island games.

The whale they saw while on the boat is supposed to the same whale from the first Paper Mario that keeps getting mistakenly called a tuna, even by himself.

And as for which version of the Comet Observatory was playing that time, any one of them will do. It doesn't matter, since I envisioned it to be an original music box-style remix.


	12. Jungle Cruise Saga

About the ZLS reaction story, I will work on it after I'm done with this one. I already have my hands full working on this and Justice of Two Worlds, and I can't even properly work on the latter currently...

Anyway, in that reaction story, you can expect things like Franchouchou looking up the internet to find out what people think about them, both positive and negative. Hilarity ensues when they come across sexual thoughts about them and also conspiracy theorists trying to figure out who they actually are!

They will also be playing video games and watching movies. Some people will probably wonder about this, so I'll just go ahead and say that they will play and react to the Resident Evil 2 remake. No, I'm not doing it because of people's requests, but because I want to myself.

For now, please enjoy this story.

 **Chapter 12  
Jungle Cruise Saga**

* * *

 **BGM: Overworld (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island)**

After the fire incident at the restaurant, which wasn't actually a serious issue, was dealt with, the Yoshis took Mario and co. for a jungle cruise.

On the side note, the effects of the red and blue watermelons only last for a few minutes.

Boarding a medium-sized boat that was enough to fit all of them and still provide enough space to walk around, the tourists greatly anticipated what sort of things they would come across as they ferry down the river that went through a jungle filled with wildlife.

The tour guide, a red Yoshi wearing a cowboy hat, said to everyone, "Greetings, folks! I am your guide for this jungle cruise, Steve Yoshwin!" Tae held her hands over her head and clapped while making zombie noises in response, causing everyone to look at her. "Thank you! Thank you! Good to know that someone appreciates me serving as their guide! I guarantee you that this will be the cruise of your lifetime! Please do not fret about the dangers you may come across, because I am an expert in this and will defend you from whatever tries to attack you!" He then pointed to some white eggs with red spots next to himself. "See these eggs? I have prepared these for the purpose to taking on dangerous animals that may try to attack us!"

Raising his arm, Luigi asked, "Will there really be dangerous animals that-a may attack us?"

Steve nodded. "It's quite possible, but fear not; there has never been any casualties! I did get an award for best tour guide after all!"

Despite this assurance, Luigi was still scared and worried. "I shouldn't have come..."

"Relax! Everything will be fine!" Mario assured him.

The boat traveled down the river at a rather slow pace, enough for the tourists to get a clear look at their surroundings without speeding past them. Some red fish with yellow fins then jumped out of the water close to the boat. "Here we have some Floppy Fish!" said Steve while pointing at said fish. "They like to jump out of water for no particular reason, thus making them easy prey for whatever feeds on them. Speaking of which, they taste really good!" As he was saying this, a Floppy Fish jumped onto the boat and flopped up and down on the floor, much to everyone' surprise.

Picking up the fish by the tail, Steve said, "Well, aren't we a lucky one today? We've got ourselve a free fish! Guess who's dinner plate this is going onto tonight!" After saying that, he opened his mouth wide and ate the fish whole. After licking his lips, he said, "Delicious! It would taste even better with the right seasonings!"

With the exception of the Yoshis and the Mario Bros., all of whom look unimpressed, the zombies had their mouths wide open, surprised that the tour guide ate the fish whole in a single gulp in just a second. Tae, on the other hand, was looking at him while drooling, clearly wanting to get a bite on the same kind of fish after seeing him eat it.

Everyone then heard high-pitched cries coming from all over the place. Looking around, they saw monkeys looking at them from the river bank and also tree branches. "Monkeys!" said Lily excitedly.

"Oh look, Grinders!" said Steve, pointing at said monkeys. "They're playful creatures who can't help but be curious about every boat that passes down this river! If they feel like it, they may even jump aboard and interact with tourists! Don't worry; they won't harm you!" As soon as he said that, a few Grinders hopped over to the boat from the branches, while some swam over before jumping on board. "Oh look! They did just as I said they would!

A Grinder hopped onto Junko's laps and looked straight at her. The zombie was surprised at first, but then a smile appeared on her face as she petted the monkey. "So cute!"

Another monkey was seated on Yuugiri's laps, and Lily, who was sitting next to her, was shaking hands with the monkey. "Why are they called Grinders anyway?" he asked. "This name is so not cute..."

"Good question! I'll... look it up later and tell you..." replied Steve, looking a bit nervous.

"If it makes you feel better, they're called Ukikis in the Mushroom Kingdom," Yoshi told the zombie.

"That's a cuter-sounding name!" said the latter.

One Grinder got before Romero, who bent down while growling at the monkey. In response, the monkey made a hissing sound while glaring at the zombie dog. Seeing this, Sakura said to the dog, "Don't be so scared and angry, Romero! He just wants to play with you!"

Looking at the Grinders with a somehwat nervous expression, Mario said, "Somehow, I have an uneasy feeling when around them..." He then placed his hands over his hat in a protective manner.

"Has to do with one stealing your hat before, right?" Luigi asked him, to which the latter nodded in response.

A Grinder then got onto Mario's lap and looked at him with a large smile. Mario stared back at the monkey and its innocent-looking smile for several seconds, and then the plumber himself also smiled as he removed his hands from his hat to pet the monkey and shake its hand. Not too soon after he did that, another Grinder jumped over Mario, snatching away his hat in the process. "Hey!"

The Grinder jumped up and down while waving the hat in the air mischieviously. It then attempted to jump off the boat, but Steve caught it from behind with his long, sticky tongue and then pulled it into his mouth. The Yoshi spit out Mario's hat while swallowing the monkey, laying out an egg after that. The zombies had their mouths wide open in shock when they saw what the Yoshi did to the monkey.

Steve picked up the hat and returned it to Mario. "They can be pranksters and thieves, so be sure to keep an eye on your belongings" he said to the plumber.

"Did... Did you just ate the monkey...?" a shocked Ai asked Steve.

"Yeah, eating things alive and swallowing them whole is their thing," said Saki, remembering what she saw back at the flower field.

The other Grinders on the boat had wide open eyes when they witnessed the fate of one of their kind, and that was enough to send them fleeing from the boat while chattering in high-pitched noises. Some grabbed onto vines to swing back onto the river bank and the trees, while some swam.

While one of them was on its way back to dry land, a green fish with large red lips suddenly leaped at it from the side with its mouth wide open, swallowing the monkey whole before diving back underwater. The sight of this shocked everyone on board. The fish stuck its head out of the water afterwards and let out a burp.

"That... That fish just ate the monkey!" said Sakura as she pointed at said fish while trembling violently.

"Nobody said nature was nice..." said Steve. "Anyway, what you saw just now was a Lunge Fish having lunch! Lunge Fish are one of the top predators in this river, attacking more or less anything they see swimming in the water. Their lunging force is strong to make holes on this boat!"

As soon as he said that, the large green fish leaped towards the guide with its mouth wide open, and most of the people on board screamed in terror while pointing at the approaching fish, not to mention telling Steve to watch out.

Without any fear, the Yoshi picked up one of the eggs next to himself and hurled it with all his might at the Lunge Fish. The egg struck the upper part of its mouth's interior, exploding like a firework upon impact, and blasted the fish backwards and into the water with a splash.

The passengers looked at that part of the river in awe and saw the fish floating back onto the surface with its belly facing upwards. "Told ya I got an award for best tour guide!" Steve told them proudly.

A few minutes later, they saw Shy Guys walking along and also standing at the river bank, looking at them. They were dressed like jungle natives and armed with spears and shields. "Are those natives of this jungle?" asked Junko.

Steve nodded. "Indeed, they are Spear Guys. They live in villages located close to the river. Don't worry; we have signed a pact with them to not interfere with each other while touring, so as long as you don't provoke them or pollute the place, they won't harm you in any way! There has been reports of them actually attacking people ferrying down the river for no apparent reason. I'm not sure how authenticate those reports are, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are true. Natives, after all, can be savage at times and do whatever they want simply because they want to."

"You don't say..." said Ai with an unimpressed look. Everyone else was looking at her with wide open eyes of shock. She had a spear stuck through her forehead, but thanks to being a zombie, her life wasn't in any form of danger at all.

Back on shore, one Spear Guy was angrily smacking another Spear Guy with his spear and also lecturing him about attacking people without a good reason, while some of them were also staring at Ai in disbelief, wondering why on earth that girl hadn't drop dead yet.

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

After several minutes, the boat arrived at what appeared to be an old, run-down castle. The boat stopped at the bank in front of it, and Steve said, "All right, we've arrived at a stop! This is an old castle from the ancient days. Even today, it remains standing, and I think we should go take a good look at what's in there! Follow my lead and don't get lost!"

Stepping down from the boat, Steve led the tourists into the castle. Everyone looked around with curiosity and interest as they entered through the castle's entrance.

"Are you sure this place is safe?" asked a worried Sakura.

"Relax! This place has been approved by the officials!" Steve told her. "People come here to clean up every once in a while in order to make sure that it's a safe place for tourists! I've been here several times already, and nothing's bad ever happened!"

"According to some of the older folks back in our village," said Yoshi, "this was one of Bowser's old strongholds."

"Bowser? You mean that guy who keeps on kidnapping the Mushroom Kingdom princess?" asked Saki.

Mario nodded. "Yes, him. In fact-a, I have memories of being here before. I think eet wuz when I was very young."

"Maybe we should ask the village elders about this," suggested the dark blue Yoshi. "They experienced a lot back in the days, so I'm sure they know the details of this place!"

"If this castle has been around for so long and was used by this Bowser, does that mean he's been around and committing crimes since a long time ago?" asked Junko.

Mario nodded. "According to Toadsworth, he's been a menace to society ever since he was a baby, or at least when as a young child."

The zombies were quite surprised to hear this. "Dang...! That's one hardcore kid!" commented Saki.

"How is he still not arrested yet?!" asked Sakura.

"As said before, he's da king of his own kingdom, so he has more or less diplomatic immunity, which he abuses to no end," replied Mario. "Da most we can do eez to foil his evil plans and send him fleeing, but sadly, he neva learns his lesson..."

"Must be really tiring having to deal with all the time, isn't it?" asked Ai.

Mario sighed. "Yeah, but you'll get-a used to eet afta a while..."

Steve eventually brought them to the throne room. It was a large room with a large pool of water in the center, and in the middle of said pool was a throne connected to the surrounding floor via a strip of land. On one side of the room was a waterway that brought water into the pool, and on the other side was another waterway in which water flowed out of.

"Here we are at the throne room!" said Steve, stating the obvious. "It is said that there once lived a giant Piranha Plant in this place, but our ancestors bravely battled and defeated it."

"Oh yeah, one of our village elders said this," said Yoshi, and then he turned to Mario. "He said you were there as well. As a baby, that is."

"I don't-a have clear memories of my time as a baby, but I imagined that things like-a theez happened when I was here on theez island during that-a time," said Mario.

"Maybe you should find some time to visit our elders to learn more about your childhood. You owe them your life greatly, don't you?" Yoshi asked him.

Mario nodded. "Indeed, I do owe them my life, even eef I cannot-a rememba things very well. I will go and pay them a visit afta we are done with da tour!"

While everyone looked around the place, Lily, Yuugiri, and Romero walked across the strip of land and to the throne. The former sat on the throne, and with a proud expression, he said, "I'm the queen of this castle! Servants, obey me!"

Yuugiri giggled and said, "I thought you said you prefer being a princess."

"Oh right... I'm the princess of this castle!" said Lily after being reminded of what he said that time in Peach's castle. "All shall obey me!"

"Yes, your highness!" said Yuugiri, bowing down in front of him.

A frog suddenly jumped out of the water and landed next to the throne, and the two zombies were not only surprised by its appearance, but also the size of it, as it was about the size of a dog.

Romero approached the frog with caution and stared at it, and the frog stared back. The frog suddenly jumped onto Romero's back, pressing the zombie dog against the floor. Enraged, Romero stood back up and barked at the frog, which hopped back into the water to escape its wrath.

Lily laughed and said to Romero, "It just wants to ride you! Why so angry?"

"What are you playing?" asked Ai as she came over. As she was walking on the strip of land, a purple fish poked its head out of the water. Curious, Ai bent down to get a better look at it.

Steve, noticing this from the surrounding floor, said to her, "That is a Spray Fish. They are known for shooting streams of water out of their mouths. They use it to shoot airborne prey out of the sky."

"Just like an archer fish, huh," commented Ai. As she continued to look at the Spray Fish, the latter suddenly shot a stream of water at her face and hit it with a rather strong force, so much that her head was sent flying off her body, much to the surprise of onlookers.

Ai's head, with a shocked face, flew through the air in an arc and fell into the water with a splash. As it was close to the waterway taking the water out of the room, the head began flowing in that direction. "AI!" screamed her companions in shock.

"SOMEONE GET MY HEAD OUT OF HERE!" Ai's head screamed in terror. Just as everyone was panicking and wondering what to do, her body, which was still under her control, hurriedly jumped into the water and swam towards the head. Everyone watched in panic as the body swam over to the head and grabbed it. Ai put her head back on, but by then, she was dangerously close to the waterway.

"Quick! Swim away from there before you get pulled in!" Steve shouted at her.

Unfortunately, the flow of the water was the strongest at the entrance of the waterway, which Ai was already at when she tried to swim away. Despite her best attempt at swimming away, the zombie was pulled into the hole in the wall while screaming for help, and everyone was horrified.

"I'll save her!" shouted Yoshi as he jumped into the water and swam towards the hole as fast as he could.

"Yoshi! Don't be so reckless!" the black Yoshi cried out to him.

Ignoring his friend's warning, Yoshi swam into the hole and disappeared into it. Everyone else could only stare at where those two disappeared into with wide open mouths and eyes.

* * *

Ai screamed as she found herself sliding downwards at a fast speed, making several turns as she did so and constantly hitting walls. After several seconds of making twists and turns, she found plummeting down a waterfall and splashing into a large pool of water.

After emerging from the water, she looked around with great panic and noticed that there was dry ground surrounding this new pool of water, so she hurriedly swam for the side and climbed up onto it. After getting back onto dry land, she rested on her hands and knees while breathing heavily, still horrified about what happened.

Suddenly, she heard someone screaming, so she turned around to see Yoshi falling out of the waterfall coming from the hole on the wall and into the water, where she just landed. The dinosaur resurfaced and, after noticing Ai, swam over to her and climbed onto dry ground as well. Breathing heavily, he asked her, "Are you all right...?"

"I'm all right..." she replied.

"That's good to know..." said Yoshi as he looked up at her and noticed that her makeup was completely washed off, thus revealing her bandaged true form. His eyes widened a bit in response.

Knowing that he saw her true form, Ai's face turned red with embarrassment. Wrapping her body with her arms slightly, she said, "Sorry you have to see me like this..."

"So this is what you actually look like? You're wrapped up from head to toe?" Yoshi asked her, and she nodded.

"It's not a pretty sight, right...?" she nervously asked.

"Actually, it's not that bad," said Yoshi. "I'm sure it could've been much worse. It must be quite uncomfortable wrapped up like a mummy, isn't it?"

"Actually, I don't feel anything, sometimes even forgetting that I'm wrapped up like this..." replied Ai.

"Anyway, let's find a place out of here," suggested Yoshi. "We must be in the castle basement, so all we have to do is find stairs that lead upwards." He looked around and noticed a door on the other side of where they were. "Oh look, there's an exit there!"

They got up and was about to began walking when suddenly the center of the pool began bulging, thus grabbing their attentions. Something big emerged from the water, and their eyes widened in shock when they saw what it was.

It was a massive Piranha Plant with spikes lined along its stem, and there were also several smaller Piranha Plants with long stems sticking out of the water around it.

While the smaller plants opened and closed their teeth-filled mouths constantly, the larger Piranha Plant, Naval Piranha, swam over to them and stared at them for several seconds, though it has no visible eyes. Those two could only stare back with wide open eyes of shock while frozen in place.

Naval Piranha then opened it mouth to let out a roar, which blew them back against the wall.

That was when they both screamed at the top of their voices. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

It's Naval Piranha, who appeared as bosses in Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Woolly World! If you haven't realized it yet, they're in the same castle you fought Naval Piranha in the former. Get ready an intense moment in the next chapter!

I made up Steve Yoshwin, and I named him after late zoologist Steve Irwin.

In Mario 64, Mario's hat can get stolen by a monkey in the stage Tall Tall Mountain, which is why he is nervous about the Grinders stealing his hat here.


	13. Plant vs Zombie

**Chapter 13  
** **Plant vs. Zombie**

* * *

After having witnessed Ai and Yoshi disappearing into the hole on the wall, their friends panicked greatly. "What do we do?! What do we do?!" asked a panicking Sakura.

"We have to rescue them, of course!" said Saki. She then turned to Steve. "Tour guide! You have an idea where they went?"

"That waterway leads to the basement, which is one place that people don't go often, perhaps even never!" replied Steve. "Even I have never explored every part of this castle, so I don't know what exactly you can find down there."

"I will go and find-a them!" said Mario.

"In that case, I will go too!" Saki said to him.

"No, you stay here!" Mario told her. "Theez eez too dangerous!"

"Danger is what I'm born for! Nothing is going to stop me from rescuing a friend!" said Saki, insisting on going.

"Just-a stay here, okay?" Mario said to her.

"Right, you should stay here, and I will go with Mario," said Steve. "Since I brought you here, it is my responsibility that you all are safe and sound, or else I will never forgive myself!"

"Saki, we should just leave it to the experts," Junko told the blonde zombie. "We don't want you getting into danger as well."

Seeing that her friends were insisting that she not go, Saki begrudgingly agreed. "Fine..."

Lily looked at Romero and said, "Maybe Romero can go with you. I'm sure his nose will come in handy, like all dogs!"

Mario looked at Romero, who seemed to be eager to tag along and help. "Okey dokey. I think eet'z all right-a eef he comes along."

"I may know the way to the basement, so follow me!" Steve said to Mario before leading him and Romero towards a door located in a certain part of the room.

The others watched them leave the place, and Sakura silently said , "Please be all right, Ai..."

* * *

 **BGM: Big Boss [World 3 and 5] (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island)**

Ai and Yoshi were still petrified with fear at the appearance of Naval Piranha. The former huddled close to the latter and hugged him tightly.

One of the smaller Piranha Plants then lunged at them with its mouth wide open. They hurriedly jumped out of the way and cried in fear as they ran along the floor circling the side of the pool to get to the door they previously discovered.

Another one of the smaller Piranha Plants got in front of them to attack them. Knowing that they couldn't get out of here without getting violent, Yoshi stared angrily at the carnivorous plant. When the latter lunged forward, the dinosaur swung his tail at its side, knocking it away. With a path cleared, Yoshi and Ai ran down the path again.

They were able to get to the door, only to find that it was closed by steel bars. "What?! It's closed?!" said Ai in shock while grabbing and shaking the bars. "What do we do?!"

"Break through it?" suggested Yoshi.

They turned around to see that Naval Piranha was facing them again alongside the smaller plants. The larger plant rose higher into the air before slamming down its head towards them to crush them with a headbutt. They got out of the way in time, and Naval Piranha's head struck the floor so hard that the latter cracked.

As they were running, Yoshi looked around for another way out, but other than the hole on the wall from which water was pouring out from, there was nowhere else. Looking at the plant monster, he said, "Looks like we'll have to deal with this thing first..."

"How are we going to kill something like that?!" asked Ai.

"I've gone on adventures with Mario before and helped him fought bad guys, so I can definitey do this! This is nothing new to me!" said Yoshi, trying his best to look courageous. "You stay here and watch me take down that thing!"

One of the smaller plants lunged at him, and Yoshi smacked it away with his tail. When another one tried to bite him, he jumped up and flattened it with a butt slam. Naval Piranah came forward with its mouth wide open, and Yoshi and Ai got out of the way when it took a large bite out of the floor. With a moutful of rock, Naval Piranha spit out the contents inside its mouth at them. Yoshi and Ai held their hands over their heads while running to avoid getting hit by the rock bullets.

Seeing some of the rocks falling to the floor, Yoshi caught one of the larger ones with his tongue and pulled it into his mouth. He then turned to Naval Piranha and spit the rock at it, striking in front of the head. The plant monster reared back a bit while crying in pain.

Ai looked to the side and noticed some spears on the floor. She realized that they had the same design as the ones wielded by the Spear Guys and assumed that some of those natives came to this place before and perhaps became prey to Naval Piranha, thus leaving behind their weapons. Desperate to defend herself somehow, she picked up one of the spears.

One of the smaller plants threatened her immediately afterwards, and though scared, Ai tried to muster her courage and held up her spear. "I'm not afraid of you!" she said to it. The plant lunged forward for a bite, and she swiftly stepped aside before stabbing it with the spear. The plant shrieked in pain and instantly died from the impalement. With a yank, Ai was able to rip the plant off its stem, and in doing so, Naval Piranha let out a cry of pain before turning to Ai angrily.

The larger plant slammed its head at her to crush her against the wall, but she ran out of the way fast before throwing the spear into the side of its head, stabbing it and making it cry in pain. From the other side, Yoshi picked up another one of the spears and placed the back end in his mouth before spitting at the plant monster, stabbing it as well.

Naval Piranha cried in pain while backing off to the center of the pool, and then the smaller plants angrily lunged at Yoshi and Ai. Ai picked up the remaining spear before running with Yoshi to avoid the approaching plants. Before the plants could pull back, Yoshi attacked with with kicks, tail whips, and headbutts, but he wasn't successful in destroying them, only making them pull back in pain.

The larger plant lunged at Yoshi with its mouth wide open. The dinosaur responded by jumping high into the air, and when Naval Piranha bit onto the floor, he dropped down with full force onto him, smashing him on the head with a powerful ground pound attack.

While Yoshi was stomping the plant over and over, Ai noticed a rather notable bulge on the part of the stem just below its neck. It was somewhat red and also had an x-shaped bandage covering it.

Naval Piranha jerked its head upwards to make Yoshi fly up high. The dinosaur looked down and saw the plant with its mouth wide open, ready to swallow him whole when he falls back down, so he desperately flapped his arms and kicked his legs to flutter away.

Yoshi made it to the side, and then Naval Piranha lunged forward to bite him. Yoshi was able to escape doom in time by dropping straight down so that the plant rammed into the wall instead.

Ai used this opportunity to run below Naval Piranha, and taking aim at the bulge underneath its head, she hurled the spear with all her might at it.

STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB!

 **BGM Ends**

The spear plunged into the bulge, causing Naval Piranha to cry in agony while flailing its head all over the place. The smaller plants also did the same thing.

Yoshi and Ai watched with widened eyes as Naval Piranha pulled back to the center of the pool while continuing the thrash around, and the spear was still impaled through its stem.

Eventually, Naval Piranha stopped moving, and it began to wither along with the smaller plants. After the plant monster was entirely dried up, it fell over onto the water surface and floated lifelessy there.

Seeing this, Yoshi and Ai let out sighs of relief, glad to know that they were no longer in danger.

* * *

While Yoshi and Ai were dealing with Naval Piranha, Mario, Steve, and Romero were traveling through the castle interior to get to where they were. As it was dark within the underground sections of the castle, Steve brought with him a flashlight to help light up the place.

The group of three made their way through several winding hallways, staircases, and rooms, most of which were empty. They encountered insects and other forms of plant-based creatures, but for the most part, they were harmless. Romero was taking the lead, sniffing the floor for Ai's scent.

"How far down does theez go?" Mario asked Steve.

"Like I said, I've never been down this far before, so I'm afraid I don't know..." said Steve. "I'm not even sure if anyone ever came down this far! They think there simply isn't the need to go this deep."

Romero suddenly came to a stop and growled angrily, and the two looked up ahead to see several creatures that resmble small, white Piranha Plants, hopping around the place. "Nipper Plants! And there's lots of them!" said Steve in shock. "If there's only one or two, then it wouldn't be a problem, but with this many..."

"There's no other way but-a to go through here, so we have to somehow overcome them," said Mario.

"Good thing I brought this!" said Steve as he reached into his bag that he had been carrying all this time, and he took out an orange flower with eyes. "Fire Flower!"

"Oh nice!" commented Mario happily when he saw it. "Don't mind if I use eet!" Mario teared off a small portion of the flower's circular petal and squeezed it hard in between his fingers. The petal disappeared, and then orange light covered Mario as fire appeared and swirled around him.

When the light and the fire all stopped, his overall was now red and white, complete with a white hat. In his new look, Mario opened his palm and generated a ball of fire on it with a smirk.

He then turned to the Nipper Plants, all of which were now looking at him and hopping towards him while chomping their mouths nonstop. With a swing of his hand, Mario hurled a fireball at one of the Nipper Plants, burning it. This shocked the other plants, and they all soon met the same fate when Mario hurled fireballs nonstop at them.

The fire-powered plumber pushed forward, throwing fireballs constantly to get rid of all the Nipper Plants in the way, while Steve and Romero followed him, the former impressed by the plumber's performance. "So this how the famous Mario is like when in action!" he thought.

They met several other plant-based creatures, but with his fire powers, Mario was able to overcome them with little to no effort. There was no stopping this fiery madman.

After a while of traveling through the place, they thought they heard someone crying in the distance. "Did-a you hear that?" Mario asked Steve.

Romero went ahead of Mario a bit and sniffed the air before barking happily and running ahead. "It must be them!" said Steve, and they followed the zombie dog.

After making their way to the end of the hallway, they were thrilled to see Yoshi and Ai standing behind vertical iron bars that were preventing them from going through. "Mario! You're here!" said Yoshi happily.

Romero ran up to the bars and stood up against it while jumping up and down happily when he saw Ai. "Romero! I'm so glad you came for me!" the bandaged zombie happily said to him.

"Are you both all right?" Mario asked them.

"We're fine," replied Yoshi. "We just defeated a giant Piranha Plant!"

"What?!" asked Steve in shock. "How can there still be one?!" Yoshi pointed at the dead Naval Piranha floating on the water, and Steve was surprised to see it. "How can a Piranha Plant reach that size naturally?! According to the elders, the one they battled was juiced by black magic to become big."

"No idea..." said Yoshi.

"I think I may know the reason..." said Steve after thinking about it for a few seconds. "A Piranha Plant cannot truly die if you do not destroy its root. So long as the root remains, it will be able to regrow itself after some time. Perhaps the elders failed to destroy the root when they battled it the first time, and over the years, it kept on growing to the same size it was."

"Sounds plausible," said Yoshi with a nod.

"How about you find a way to get rid of these bars first and get us out of here?" Ai said to them.

Mario and Steve looked around for ways to open the door. "There should be some hidden switch somewhere..." he thought. He felt around the wall and eventually pressed a hidden switch that blended into its surrounding almost perfectly. "Found it!"

Just like that, the bars slid up, thus allowing Ai and Yoshi to step through. "Thanks for coming for us," the former said to Mario.

"I'm just-a glad you're all right-a!" said Mario.

"Wait here as I go deal with the remains of the Piranha Plant to make sure it doesn't regrow again," said Steve as he entered the room and dived into the pool.

After seeing Steve doing that, Ai noticed something different about Mario and asked, "Did you change clothes? It's colored differently from before..."

"Oh, I used a Fire Flower," explained Mario. "Eet gives me fire-based powers and also changes my appearance a bit. I used only a small bit of da flower, so my clothes will change back after a few more minutes."

Ai was going to ask how a flower could give people fire-based powers when Steve resurfaced from the pool, holding a large root over his head. "I found it!"

The three watched as he threw the root onto dry ground and climbed back up. "This is the root of the problem!" he said. "As long as this is still around, the Piranha Plant will regrow again! Better get rid of it for good!"

"I'll do eet," said Mario. He threw a fireball at the root and burned it. When the root was completely burned up, the fire died out as well. "There!"

"I hope we won't ever have to see this thing again," said Yoshi.

"I definitely wouldn't want to..." said Ai, still shuddering about the horrifying experience earlier.

Turning to her, Yoshi said, "You were brave and awesome earlier! You gave the Piranha Plant the killing blow!"

"I'd rather not be known for killing something..." said a somewhat annoyed Ai.

* * *

After the incident with Naval Piranha, everyone made it back to the boat to return to civilization.

On the way, the zombies were talking with Ai about happened. "Did you really give the monster the killing blow?" an excited Saki asked her. The latter nodded with an annoyed look. "Wow! That's awesome! You're really good at everything, aren't you? Singing, dancing, archery, and even monster slaying!"

"I'd rather not do something like this again..." grumbled Ai in frustration.

"At least you're back safe and sound!" said Yuugiri.

Meanwhile, Yoshi asked Mario, "Want to go see the Yoshi who took care of you when you were a baby? The green one, that is."

Mario nodded. "Okey dokey! It's been a while since I've met him! How is he these days?"

When he asked that, Yoshi's expression became sad, and Mario noticed that this was the case for the other Yoshis as well.

"Actually..." said Yoshi. "Well, we didn't tell you this at first because we didn't want to ruin your and your friend's trip... That Yoshi... He's terminally ill... He's dying..."

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Yeah, the chapter title... Fun reference, isn't it?

Anyway, given that ZLS isn't an action series, I think given the situation here, the battle was resolved in a somewhat believable way. Hoped you like it!


	14. Happy To See You Again

Two chapters in one day?! Guess I'm really on fire about this story! Or perhaps it's because I really like this chapter that I decided to churn it out as fast as possible? Either way, I'm sure you're happy that this chapter came out so soon!

Now if only I can have the same motivation for Justice of Two Worlds...

 **Chapter 14  
Happy To See You Again**

* * *

Rushing through the hospital halls as fast as they could, Mario and Luigi hurriedly looked for the ward that the green Yoshi they owed their lives to when they were young was currently staying at. They were accompanied by Yoshi and his friends, not to mention the zombies. Even though the latter didn't know who this Yoshi was, the fact that someone their friend knew was dying was still enough to make them concerned.

When they finally arrived at the entrance of the ward room, Mario and Luigi stopped in front of it while breathing heavily to catch their breaths. The others eventually caught up, and Yoshi went up to the door to knock on it. When he heard someone inside telling him to come in, he told the brothers that he would go in first and then they would come in later.

"Please be all right... Please be all right..." Mario quietly said over and over. Seeing his concern, Luigi placed his hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

Yoshi then opened the door and told them to come in, so they did. The others decided to wait outside.

When the brothers went into the ward room, they saw an aged and wrinkly Yoshi lying on the bed, and there were various medical equipment and IV tubes connected to him. "Yoshi...!" Mario said to him with a look of concern.

The ill Yoshi turned to look at the brothers, and a smile appeared on his face. "Is that really you, Mario?"

The brothers took off their hats as they went up next to his bed. "Eet eez us," Mario said to him. "We're sorry for not seeing you all theez time..."

"It's all right, because you're finally here," said the ill Yoshi. "I'm so glad to be able to see you one last time before I leave this world!"

Bending down next to the Yoshi's bed and grabbing his hands, Mario said to him, "Please don't-a say that! You will definitely recover! I believe you will!"

"No, my time is coming to an end soon," the Yoshi said to him. "I may not have lived the longest life, but I still lived my life to the fullest! Protecting you and making sure that you see your parents... Those were the proudest and greatest accomplishments of my life! Nothing can make me happier than to see the child I took care of all those years ago becoming the world's greatest hero!"

He then looked at the equally sad Luigi and said, "And you too, Luigi. We may not have interacted with each other as much, but saving your life was still my priority, and it is good to know that you are now a healthy young man!"

"I'm not as courageous or as strong as Mario," Luigi told him. "I may have ended up being a disappointment..."

"No, nobody is a disappointment," the ill Yoshi told him. "The fact that you are still standing alongside your brother and making accomplishments with him is proof that you have succeeded in life and that I did the right thing in saving your life, and more than once!"

* * *

The others were still outside the ward room, waiting for something to happen, perhaps Mario coming back out. They were silent and didn't know what to talk about, perhaps not even wanting to talk about anything, given the rather grim atmosphere of the current situation.

Sakura broke the silence, however. "You know... Thinking about it, I've never had a relative, family member, or friend who's been hospitalized before. Even though the person in there is someone we don't know, I still feel concerned for his well-being and am even scared that the worst might happen... I know I died right away when the truck hit me, but I still imagined that I was still taken to hospital for verification, so I'd imagine my parents were equally worried that time when waiting for the doctor's final verdict on me."

"I didn't die instantly after getting struck by lightning," said Ai. "I still remember being sent to the hospital and being in the emergency room for a few minutes before I finally died from cardiac arrest. I can also imagine my parents and friends being in great panic as they waited to hear my condition..."

"Lily is sure her father took her to hospital after she died, and he must've felt the same thing Lily is currently feeling..." said Lily with a sad face.

Just then, the door opened, and Luigi poked his head out. Looking at the zombies, he said to them, "You girls mind coming in? Yoshi wants to see you."

"Us?" said Sakura curiously.

Luigi nodded. "Yeah, we told him that we came here because we were bringing friends over for a trip, and he wants to see what sort of friends we have made over the years."

The zombies then went into the ward room and saw Mario, Yoshi, and the ill Yoshi there. The zombies gathered around his bed, and Sakura said to him, "It's nice to meet you, sir!"

The Yoshi said to Mario, "So these are the friends you've made?"

Mario nodded. "Yes, but we've only met them a few days ago."

The Yoshi smiled as he looked at each of the zombies, unaware of what they actually are, even after seeing Lily's partially exposed face and Ai with all her bandages. "You have beautiful friends!" he said to Mario. Some of the zombies blushed when they heard this. He looked at the zombies again and said, "Did Mario tell you that I am the one who took care of him when he was a baby and saved his life multiple times?"

"He didn't specifically tell us this, but we overheard him saying this with the others," Ai told him.

 **BGM: Story Music Box (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island)**

The Yoshi smiled. "Then perhaps you would like to hear a story, the story of how I met Mario and Luigi and rescued them from the hands of Bowser in order to ensure that they are delivered to their parents."

"Wait, delivered to their parents?" said Saki curiously.

"They were delivered by storks to their parents," explained the Yoshi.

"Wait a minute... Story delivering babies...? Isn't that supposed to be stories made up by parents for their children?!" said Ai in surprise.

"Actually, eet wuz a baby delivery service for parents who do not-a have children, and said babies are orphans," Luigi explained to them. "You see, our parents passed away when we were still babies, so the parents we grew up with are not-a our birth parents."

The zombies were shocked to hear this. "Your parents passed away when you were still babies...?!" said Junko, who almost felt like crying.

"And frankly, we don't have memories of them, because we were still too young," Mario said to them.

"But I'm sure Mario still remembers the things he went through as my friends and I tried to reunite him with the captured Luigi and send them back to their parents," said the ill Yoshi. "Those were the good old days, even though we constantly risked our lives... It was not easy trying to get through the evil forces of Bowser and also Bowser himself. Even as a baby, Bowser was a force to reckon with... Let me tell you, he's the biggest rascal I've ever seen!"

"And even today, he's still a menace..." said Yoshi. "Some things never change..."

The ill Yoshi continued to talk about the adventures he had with Mario as a baby. The zombies were even surprised to hear that an adult Bowser traveled back in time to get rid of baby Mario in order change history, and twice, but in the end, the Yoshis managed to foil both his attempts.

After much talking, the ill Yoshi coughed, and Yoshi told him, "You shouldn't talk anymore. You are in no condition to do that, so please rest."

"What difference does it make if I am going to leave this world soon?" said the ill Yoshi. He looked at the people around him again. "Do not mourn for me. Death comes to everyone, whether we like it or not. Perhaps for some species, they are granted a second chance at life, but for us Yoshis, we do not have that privilege. Soon, I will be up there with the stars and look down at you all with a smiling face. I will be going to a much better place soon!"

He then noticed the star accessory on Lily's head and said to him, "That is a beautiful piece of accessory you have there!"

In response, Lily took down the accessory and held it in front of himself. "Thank! I really like it! It makes me feel like I'm a star shining in the sky!"

The Yoshi smile and nodded. "I'm sure you will grow up to become an even more beautiful star!"

"Thank you!" Lily said to him with a smile. If only the latter knew better...

He then looked at Mario and said, "I am glad to be able to see you one last time before I leave this world. Making you the person you are today is the greatest achievement I have ever done, and with my mission complete, I can finally leave this world with no regrets! It makes me glad to know that you are now successful in life and have made many friends! Please take good care of them like I took care of you!"

With tears in his eyes, Mario nodded. "I will!"

He then looked at Yoshi. "Please continue to look after Mario. You can say that you are my successor!"

Also with teary eyes, Yoshi said, "I will! I owe Mario my life too! I will always be at his side!"

Next, he looked at Luigi. "Don't let anything bring you down, Luigi. You are as talented as Mario, even if you may not see it now."

"I won't let you down!" said Luigi, who had perhaps the most tear of the bunch currently.

Lastly, he looked at the zombies. "Mario is a good man. You are lucky to be his friends! Knowing him is the greatest thing you could ask for in your life! Please get along with him. You girls are also still young, so you should live your life to the fullest. Live a long and happy life, doing everything you want to do so that when the time for you to leave comes, you will have no regrets.

Hearing something like this being said to them felt awkward, as they had already died, though it was true they were currently behaving like live people. "We will! We will definitely live our lives to the fullest and not disappoint you!" Sakura, who was beginning to cry, said to him.

"I may have only known you for a few minutes, but I already like you all! If only I have more time, I would take you out to fun places and share with you more about my adventures!" said the ill Yoshi. He then coughed again. Seeing this, Yoshi got him water to drink. After drinking the water, the Yoshi rested his head on his pillow and said, "I'm tired... I want to sleep now... You must be tired from having fun the whole day, so you should go rest as well. It is good for your body."

"Please rest and get well soon, Yoshi," Mario said to him.

Looking at Mario again, the Yoshi said, "Stay healthy, my boy. Continue to be a hero and make me proud, even when I'm gone." After that saying that, the Yoshi laid back properly and then closed his eyes.

Everyone looked at him in silence, fearing that he had passed away, but their fears were subsided when the Yoshi began snoring. "Phew... He's only asleep..." said Yoshi.

"But da point still stands that he will die eventually..." said Luigi. "I hate to sound-a negative, but he may very well neva wake-a up from theez sleep... Eet may be his last-a one..."

Mario moved his head close to the Yoshi's head and silently said to him, "Good night, Yoshi. Even afta you're gone, I will neva forget-a you!"

* * *

Soon afterwards, the group left the hospital and were heading for the tour bus the Yoshis got for them. Mario stood outside the hospital and looked up at the night sky, wondering about what happened. Sakura and Saki walked up to him, and the latter said to him, "You all right?"

Mario wiped away his tears and said, "I'm all right-a. Thanks!"

"I'm sure he will get well! Believe, and miracles will happen!" Sakura told him.

"I'm ready for theez," Mario told her. "Being able to see him one last-a time before he leaves eez good enough for me already. Which reminds me... You said-a nobody in your world know that-a you are zombies, right?"

"Yeah, our producer forbids us from making ourselves known, because folks back in our world probably will want us dead, assuming it's even possible we can die a second time," Saki said to him.

"What I want-a to say eez... Well, I'm not-a forcing you to do eet eef you don't want to, becuz I can understand your circumstances," said Mario. "Have you ever thought-a of at least seeing your family members?"

When the two zombies heard this, they felt as if something struck their hearts. The other zombies were close by when they heard this, and they had the same feeling.

"We... We did think of it... but we're not sure if our parents will be able to accept us like this..." replied Sakura.

"Maybe you should eef you really want-a to. I can't imagine any parent not wanting to meet their children again, no matta what da condition of da latter eez," said Mario. "Again, I'm not-a saying you must, but theez eez something you can consider. Perhaps should-a do eet before they die."

The bus suddenly started its engine, and the orange Yoshi poked his head out of the door and said to them, "All right, we're taking off! We're gonna go see those Zombie Guys now!"

"All right! Let's-a go see some zombies!" said Mario as he smiled and headed for the bus, and the others eventually followed suit.

* * *

While the bus drove down the road, everyone sat silently for the most part inside.

The zombies were all wondering about what Mario told them.

Sakura had to admit that she missed her parents. The latter realizing that their daughter was killed all of a sudden out of nowhere must've been a devastating news for them. Children walking out of parents' lives just like this... What can be more tragic?

Saki wasn't sure if she actually missed her parents. She had to admit that she never thought much about them or even got along well with them. She had always prided in being able to sustain herself and making her own decisions. In her eyes, she was already an adult the moment she became a part of Dorami. Still, she had to admit that walking out of their lives so suddenly was disrespectful, so perhaps it was time she made up for this?

Ai, too, wondered about how her parents were doing now. It must've been devastating for them to learn that their daughter died out of nowhere without a warning while doing her job. When she was alive, she was so passionate about being an idol that she didn't spend that much time with her parents, and now she felt sorry for never having done that. If possible, she wanted to be able to make up for this now.

Having been dead for over thirty years, Junko wasn't sure if her parents were still alive. If they were still alive, they would be old enough to be her grandparents already. Being away from her parents often was normal for her, considering that her career required her to be traveling from place to place often, and there were only short periods of time when she could go visit them. Even so, she respected her parents and would find every opportunity she could to reunite with them, something she felt like doing now.

Lily had met his father previously, though he refrained from making himself known to the latter and instead pretended to be an unrelated person. He told himself that he was perfectly fine now that he had found peace for his father... somehow, but after hearing what Mario said, he suddenly began missing his father again. As he thought about this, he began to cry.

Yuugiri, who was sitting next to Lily, saw him breaking down into tears, so she wiped away her tears and also petted her. Unlike the others, Yuugiri left the world over one hundred years ago, so by now, all her family members were dead. She did think of the possibility of them having descendants, but would they know who she is?

Sakura, who was sitting next to Tae, looked at her and asked her, "Tae, do you miss your parents too? Assuming they are still alive, that is..."

Tae simply looked at her and made a groaning sound, but despite this, Sakura smiled.

The bus then came to a stop, and the bus drivre, a Shy Guy, said, "All right, we're here!"

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

Stepping down from the bus, the group walked down a short path leading to an old mansion surrounded by a fence. There were two Yoshis and a Shy Guy standing in front of the gate. The black Yoshi went up to them and explained their purpose here.

"Curious about zombies, eh?" said one of the guard Yoshis, a purple one. "Well, feast your eyes on the living dead!" He then pointed his hand at the mansion, and they all saw Shy Guys wandering around the outside of the building.

Upon closer inspection, the Shy Guys were covered in dirt. They constantly made moaning sounds while wandering around slowly and aimlessly, even looking like they were going to fall over any moment. "So those are Zombie Guys?" asked Luigi. "Doesn't look as scary as I thought-a they would be."

The zombie idols were the most interested in them. "Oh look, your friends are in there, Tae!" Saki jokingly said to her mindless companion.

"More like all of our friends are in there..." said Lily.

"Looks like you girls have quite an interest in zombies, huh?" the other guard Yoshi, who was colored white, asked them.

"That's because we are zombies ourselves!" Saki told him, but the guards laughed at her in response.

"They're telling da truth," Mario told the guards.

"No, seriously?" asked the Shy Guy.

"Can't you tell by looking at her?" Saki asked him while pointing at Ai. "Anyway, if that isn't enough..." She then placed her hands around her head and pulled it off the neck, a move that shocked the guards. "Good enough proof for you?"

"Fine, you've prove your point... Just don't go attacking us like the ones in there," the white Yoshi said to her.

"Oh, don't worry; we're nothing like them at all," Saki assured him while putting her head back on. "But... I can't say the same for Tae..."

"Are those zombies dangerous?" Luigi asked the guards.

"Only if you wander into their territory," the purple Yoshi told him. "Watch." He unlocked and opened the gate to go into the mansion grounds. One of the Zombie Guys saw him and began moving in his direction, and the other Zombie Guys followed suit. When they were close to him, the purple Yoshi hurried back out, though without closing the gate. Despite this, the Zombie Guys stopped in front of the open door and then turned around to go back to wandering around within the mansion grounds. "For some reason, they never go pass this line."

"We don't know if their bites are contagious, and frankly, nobody wants to experiment this..." said the white Yoshi.

"I wonder if they'll attack us. We're zombies as well, so..." said Junko.

"How about we test it out?" said Saki as she began climbing over the fence.

"Hey! Don't be so reckless!" the Shy Guy told her.

Despite his warning, Saki got into the mansion grounds. However, none of the Zombie Guys came after her at all. They all continued to wander around as if she wasn't there. Wanting to experiment more, she approached one of the zombie Shy Guys and waved her hand in front of his face, but there was response from him.

Turning to look at the ones on the other side of the fence, she said, "See? We're all friends here!"

"Wow... That's a first..." said the Shy Guy.

"They are zombies themselves, so I guess this only makes sense..." said Yoshi.

"Want to come in here and have fun?" Saki asked her friends.

"No thanks... I'll pass..." said Ai, waving her hand, and the others nodded. Tae, however, climbed over the fence as well.

She wandered among the zombies and stared at some of them, but they didn't respond at all and kept on wandering around aimlessly. Tae even walked up to one and smacked her hand on his head over and over, but the Zombie Guy continued to ignore her.

"These guys are even more mindless than you..." commented Saki when she saw that.

"How did these zombies came to be anyway?" Ai asked the guards.

"According to eyewitnesses, there was a thunderstorm about a month ago, and when a lightning struck the ground outside the mansion, these folks started coming out of the ground," replied the purple Yoshi. "It's still a mystery for the most part, such as why a lightning strike would make them appear. Why don't know why they hang out around this mansion as well, not to mention why there are even lots of Shy Guys buried around here in the first place!"

"How about you girls? How did you become zombies? And why aren't you mindless like them?" the Shy Guy asked her.

Ai shrugged. "No idea... All we know is that someone brought us back to life as zombies, but he never shared the details as to how he did it... And I heard that we were originally mindless, but eventually regained our consciousness. Except that one..." She said the last line while pointing at Tae, who was still wandering among the Zombie Guys.

"Watching these zombies wander around really reminds me of you all when you were mindless," said Sakura.

"Somehow, hearing this makes me embarrassed..." said Junko while blushing slightly. "I can't imagine myself behaving like this..."

Meanwhile, Saki was bent down in front of a Shy Guy and stared at his face. "I wonder what's behind your mask," she said as she reached her hand towards the mask.

Seeing this, Luigi and the guard Yoshis widened their eyes in horror, and they screamed while jumping over the fence and rushing towards her. "DON'T!"

Their action and screaming surprised Saki, making her pull her hands back. They grabbed the blonde zombie and pulled her out of the place with such a speed that the Zombie Guys never noticed them.

"What's with your reactions?!" Saki asked those three, all of whom were breathing heavily.

Luigi then inched his face close to hers and said, "Never. Remove. A. Shy. Guy's. Mask!"

"You DO NOT want to see a Shy Guy's face!" the white Yoshi said to her while trembling nonstop. "Yesterday, a Zombie Guy tripped and dropped his mask. I saw his face, and I'm still having problems trying to get over it!"

"Their faces are the number one most terrifying things in the world for a reason! You DO NOT under any circumstances want to see it!" the purple Yoshi said to her in an angry tone.

Saki was admittedly freaked out by their attitude. She then turned to the Shy Guy and asked him, "Is is true your kind's face is really scary?"

The Shy Guy shrugged. "That's what they say, but I think there's nothing wrong with it. But then, it's my own face, and I see it often when in private, so I guess I'm used to it..."

"Tae! What are you doing?!" shouted Sakura all of a sudden. The others turned to her before looking at the mansion grounds, and everyone was shocked to see Tae removing the mask of a Zombie Guy. The latter's back was facing them, so they didn't see his face.

Tae's expression became a shocked one as she dropped the mask, and then making a a frightened cry, she ran on all fours towards the fence and jumped over it. She ran up to Sakura and planted her face against her body while making sounds that sounded like a child crying. "Tae! You shouldn't have done that!" she said to her.

"EVERYONE! CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LOOK AWAY!" the purple Yoshi shouted at everyone while closing his eyes. "GUARD GUY! PUT HIS MASK BACK ON!"

"But there are zombies in there!" the Shy Guy said to him.

"JUST DO IT FAST AND THEN RUSH BACK OUT!" the white Yoshi yelled at him while covering his eyes and planting his head against the ground.

The Shy Guy grumbled in frustration before opening the gate. He rushed inside, ran to the Zombie Guy, put his mask back on, and then rushed back out before the other Zombie Guys caught up with him, shutting the gate when he did so. "Phew... All right, you can open your eyes now..."

Everyone opened their eyes, and Sakura said to a Tae, "Tae, are you all right...?" The mindless zombie was still trembling nonstop while making weeping-like sounds.

"I've never seen Lady Tae behaving like this before...!" commented Yuugiri. "What she saw must've truly left a huge scar on her..."

"Even someone mindless like Tae can be this terrified... I can't believe it... " said Saki in disbelief. "Makes me glad I was stopped in time just now..."

"I think-a we have seen enough for today... Maybe we should leave now?" suggested Mario.

Everyone agreed that they had seen enough for today. Saying good-bye to the guards, Mario and co. went back onto the tour bus and headed off.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Well, a touching chapter, wouldn't you say so? I had fun typing this emotional and sad chapter. On the happy side, that Yoshi isn't dead yet, but on the sad side, he doesn't have much time left to live...

I particularly enjoyed typing the part where the zombies think about their parents. It's something that I really hope the potential second season explores. Even now, I still feel that episode 8 handled the situation between Lily and his father terribly... It wouldn't hurt to at least let his father know the truth... The conclusion doesn't make sense either... How can a guy who blames himself for his child's death for so many years suddenly be at peace just because a "girl" who looks like his child invited him to her concert? Though to comfort myself, I'd like to pretend that the father actually knows this "girl" is his child, but out of respect for the latter wanting to hide her identity, he chooses to remain ignorant.

I also think the choice of music I used here is incredibly fitting. It has a sad feeling to it, but at the same time also relaxing and soothing. What do you think?

And in case you haven't realized yet, Bowser traveling back in time to change history is from both Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's New Island.


	15. A Way Home At Last?

**Chapter 15  
A Way Home At Last?**

* * *

Waking up early in the morning, Yoshi cleaned himself before heading down to the living room to find Mario and Luigi asleep on the two sofas there. Rather than letting them spend money to stay at a hotel, Yoshi invited the brothers and the zombies so stay at this house instead. The brothers chose to sleep in the living room, while the zombies stayed in the two guest rooms available on the second floor.

Quietly making his outside so that he wouldn't disturb the two, Yoshi went to the mailbox, which had the name T. Yoshisaur Munchkoopas written at its side, and opened it to check for mail. He took out an envelope containing a tax notice. After skimming through its contents, he threw it back into the mailbox and then walked away. "No mail today," he told himself.

* * *

For the most of the day, the Mario Bros. and zombies spent their time going to markets and touring some of the more beautiful places of Yoshi's Island, guided by Yoshi and his friends, and they had a great time.

The zombies didn't have their makeups this time, as they washed themselves the previous night and had no way of reapplying makeups. They did attract some attention while out there in their true forms, but no ruckus was created. Some of them felt nervous, but some, like Saki, didn't mind at all.

They also paid the ill Yoshi in hospital one more time. He was still alive and told them not to worry about him.

As evening approached, it was time for them to return to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Standing outside the boat, Mario said to Yoshi, "Thanks for taking your time to guide us around! We appreciate it!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed your time here!" Yoshi said to him. "Have a safe trip home!" He then turned to the zombies. "Have a safe trip home too! And I hope you manage to find the warp pipe that brought you here in the first place so that you can go back to your own world!"

"Thanks for showing us lots of fun things here!" Sakura said to him. "We greatly appreciate it!" The other zombies said similar things, thanking the Yoshis for their hospitality.

When the boat was ready to leave, they all boarded it and continued to wave good-bye to the Yoshis as the boat began to set sail.

Soon, the boat was so far from the island that the latter was pretty much no longer visible over the horizon.

Mario and co. were all on the deck, enjoying the cool ocean breeze and view, even though there wasn't much to see other than the endless span of ocean and the seagulls flying around. There weren't any dolphins or ocean life forms swimming on the water surface either.

Meanwhile, the boat's captain and the sailors were busy sailing the boat in the control room. They were all Toads.

A sailor noticed something on the radar. "Captain, something big appears to be approaching the boat."

The captain came over to see the radar to confirm things himself. "Any idea on what it is?"

Another sailor looked out the window but saw nothing. "There is nothing out there, so it's likely underwater."

"Probably a whale, and I'm sure it'll steer clear of the boat," said the captain. "Just go full speed ahead, and we should be clear of it before it gets close to us."

"I think it's specifically heading towards us..." said the sailor looking at the radar.

"What?" said the captain curiously as he looked at the radar again. Indeed, the spot on the screen was specifically heading for the boat.

Back on the deck, the passengers were still enjoying their time out there when an announcement was made through a speaker located somewhere. "Attention all passengers, there is something in the sea approaching the boat, but please do not fret. We have everything under control."

"Something is heading for the boat?" said Junko, sounding worried.

"I don't see anything out there, though," said Ai as she looked around at the sea.

"I have a bad feeling about-a theez..." said a worried Luigi.

Suddenly, the boat shook, almost making everyone loose their footing. "What was that?!" asked Sakura in shock.

"Passengers! Please stay calm! Our boat was come in contact with a large life form!" the captain spoke through the speaker. "But please remain calm, for... Whoa! Waaaa! AAAAAAAAHHH!"

The fact that the captain screamed made everyone on the deck scared. They could even hear the sailors with him screaming. "What... What is happening?!" asked Junko, who was now seriously scared. Lily even hugged Yuugiri in shock.

Suddenly, they saw appeared to be a white tentacle raising over the boat's cabin, and the sight of it surprised everyone. They all watched in horror as the owner of the tentacle made itself known by climbing to the top of the cabin.

It was large white squid with dark blue spots all over its body and four long tentacles.

"A... A giant squid?!" said Sakura in shock.

Mario widened his eye in surprise and said, "Goopa Bloopa!"

 **BGM: Boss Battle [Super Mario Sunshine] (Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games)**

The giant squid Mario referred to as Gooper Blooper began slamming his tentacles around the deck, crushing anything it hit, and the passengers found themselves running around while screaming.

After rolling out of the way of a tentacle attack, Saki angrily asked, "What's that guy's problem?!"

"Goopa Bloopa eez a giant squid I've encountered before!" explained Mario. "Apparently, Bowsa trained it to terrorize people, and even afta eet eez no longer under Bowsa's possession, eet continued to go around terrorizing ships out at sea!"

Mario dodged another tentacle strike, and before it could be pulled back, Mario jumped onto it, stomping it hard. Gooper Blooper writhed in pain while pulling back said tentacle, and then it angrily aimed all four of them at Mario, who swiftly jumped around the place to avoid getting hit.

Noticing how swiftly Mario was dodging while hiding behind a folding chair, Ai commented, "He's fast!"

"Yeah, Mario is known for his jumping skills," Luigi said to while hiding behind another folding chair.

After dodging the tentacles, Mario grabbed one of the chairs and then ran towards the cabin before leaping high into the air. When he was at the same level as Gooper Blooper, he flung the chair right at his face.

After landing from his jump, Mario jumped a second time, this time landing onto the cabin. He was going to approach Gooper Blooper when the suddenly squirted a large amount of ink at him, pushing him back onto the deck. "Waaaa!"

Covered from head to toe in ink, Mario fell flat on his back, while everyone watched in shock. Gooper Blooper then descended from the roof of the cabin, landing on the deck, making everyone even more scared.

"What do we do?! What do we do?!" cried Sakura in panic while hiding behind a table.

Luigi ran over to Mario, who was still on his back, and shook him up. "Mario! Save us!"

Saki fearlessly stepped towards Gooper Blooper while rolling up her sleeve. "You want a piece of me? Bring it! I'm not afraid of you!"

"Saki! Don't! You can't do anything against it!" Ai warned her.

Gooper Blooper was going to swing one of his tentacles at Saki, but then Tae suddenly jumped at the raised tentacle and bite into it hard. The giant squid let out a squealing-like sound in pain while shaking the tentacle to shake off the zombie. Despite sinking her teeth deeply into the tentacle, Tae was eventually thrown off, but she landed on all fours. Staring at the squid while growling like a beast, complete with drool running down her mouth, Tae looked as if she was going for a second round.

That was then it came to Sakura. "I just remember! Tae's favorite food is squid!"

"Wait... So she was trying to eat eet?!" asked a surprised Luigi.

Tae let out a beast-like cry as she sprinted on all fours at a fast speed at Gooper Blooper. The latter squirted ink at her, but she sidestepped out of the way and continued heading for him. He jumped onto the squid's head, somehow held onto it, and once again sank her teeth into his skin.

The squid squealed in pain while shaking his head to get her off, and Tae actually succeeded in ripping off a chunk of its flesh, a move that surprised the others. "Mamamia!" commented Mario.

"Yeah! Tae! Go get that monster!" Lily cheered for her while punching the air.

Tae fell off Gooper Blooper's head and then ran at his face. Grabbing his mouth, the zombie began pulling it back like it was made of rubber. The squid panicked greatly while flailing his tentacles around in response. After pulling for about two meters, Tae let go of the mouth, and it snapped back to the squid with such a force that the whole thing was sent skidding backwards, hitting the front of the boat cabin.

Gooper Blooper angrily tried to hit her with his tentacle, but she jumped over it and, after landing, grabbed hold of that tentacle and pulled it. In fact, she pulled with such a force that it was torn off of the body. This action surprised all the others.

Now Gooper Blooper afraid. Rather than staying to keep on fighting, the squid performed quite an amazing leap from the deck and off the boat, diving back into the sea. Everyone ran to the side and watched as the giant squid swam away underneath the water until it was no longer visible.

 **BGM Ends**

"And don't come back, monster!" Lily shouted at him.

"Wow! I can't believe Tae really sent it fleeing!" said Junko in surprise.

They turned to Tae, who was busy sinking her teeth into the severed tentacle that was still squirming. "Mamamia! She's something!" said Mario. "I didn't expected her to defeat-a Goopa Bloopa!"

"That's because she's legendary! Heheh!" said Saki, proud of her friend's accomplishment.

Sakura went up to Tae and threw her arms around her for a hug while the latter was still biting the tentacle. "You did great, Tae! You saved us all!"

The captain and a few sailors then stepped out of the cabin and were surprised to see the severed tentacle. "What happened? Where's Gooper Blooper?" he asked.

The others looked at him, and Luigi replied, "You'll neva believe eet..."

* * *

After the encounter with Gooper Blooper was over, the boat continued with its course. Despite the squid's attack, no actual damage was done to it, other than a few broken windows. As for the severed tentacle, it was sliced up and stored into separate boxes for people to take home as dinner.

Eventually, the boat returned to Mushroom Kingdom's harbor, and everyone stepped down.

"We're finally back!" said Luigi happily while stretching his arms into the air.

"Hope you had fun at Yoshi's Island!" Mario said to the zombies.

"We had lots of fun! Thank you for giving us this experience!" Sakura said to him.

"All right, I'll take-a you back to da castle," Mario said to them.

With nothing else to do, the plumbers guided the zombies back to the castle. When they arrived at the castle gate, one of the guards there said to them, "Oh, you're back! Professor E. Gadd arrived at the place, wanting to see the zombies."

Intrigued, Mario asked him, "Eez eet about-a finding a way home for them?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" the guard said before opening the gate for them to pass through.

Hearing this, the zombies were excited, thinking that the professor was bringing them good news about the Golden Pipe.

* * *

The whole group was now at the book room with E. Gadd, and Peach and Toadsworth were there as well. Holding up some papers, E. Gadd said to them, "After much digging about the Golden Pipe, I have managed to find more info on it. It seems that your way home is much closer than you think!"

"How do we go back?" Ai asked him.

"According to my findings, the pipe's location after it disappeared actually won't change," explained the old man. "You simply need to make it appear somehow. According to the information relayed to me by Captain Toad, a large amount of energy must be present in order for the pipe to show up."

The others were confused to hear this. "Lily doesn't get it..." said Lily.

"To put it simple, a large amount of energy must be exposed to where the pipe disappeared into in order to make it appear again," explained E. Gadd. "Any of you still remember where you first popped out at? The closest one will do in order to save time."

"Sakura and I popped out in the middle of a field somehow out of town," said Saki. "Can't really remember where, though..."

"Lily remembers!" said Lily, raising his hand. "Lily and Romero appeared in a specific location here in town! I can show you that place."

"Okay, that one should do!" said E. Gadd. "Let's go over there and check it out!"

* * *

The group wasted no time in heading over to the specific patch of bushes that Lily claimed was where he popped out from. After clearing away the bushes, E. Gadd took out a handheld contraption of some kind and placed it close to the grassy ground. "Did you find-a anything?" Mario asked him.

"Yes, there is a faint energy signature here," replied E. Gadd. "If we can expose a large amount of energy to this place in some way, we can get the pipe to show up again."

"What sort of energy are you talking about?" Ai asked him.

"I'll still have to look into that," said E. Gadd as he stood back up. "I have already recorded the energy signature here, so all I have to do is replicate it somehow. I'm not sure how long it'll take, but I will get it done as soon possible."

"All right! We can finally go home!" said Sakura happily.

"This is great!" said Junko.

"I don't know... Lily feels like staying here a little longer..." said Lily, not sounding as happy as the others.

"As much as I am fond of this place as well, I agree that we really should go back," Yuugiri said to him. "Who knows? Maybe we can come back here again!"

"You think you can establish a permanent link between both our worlds so we can come and go as we please?" Saki asked E. Gadd.

"I can't guarantee anything, but I'll see what I can do," E. Gadd told her.

* * *

That night, the zombies were in their guest room. Ai had just told them about something she had in mind.

"You want to hold a performance in this town?!" Sakura asked her in surprise after hearing what she said.

Ai nodded. "Yes. Since these people treated us with such hospitality, I think it's only fair that we repay them with our best performances. We are idols after all, so it makes sense for us to entertain them!"

"But we don't have any of our songs with us..." Junko said to her.

Ai smiled as she took out a flash drive. "Don't worry; I've got that covered!"

"When did you bring that?" Lily asked her.

"On the night we came here, I put this into my pocket after we were done practicing," explained Ai. "It contains most of the songs we've used in our past performances, including the new one we will be performing at Tokyo. I'm sure you all still remember the old dance moves, right? With this, we can put a performance of decent length for the people here!"

"Great idea!" said Saki. "Let's tell the princess about this, then!"

All the other zombies agreed that this was a great idea. They had told Mario and his friends about their occupation back home but had yet to show them what they were capable of. Sure, Ai, Lily, and Yuugiri held a small performance at a restaurant, but not a handful of people saw it.

This time, they were going to go perform in a large scale so that all of Toad Town, perhaps even all of Mushroom Kingdom, could see why they were famous back in their own world.

* * *

The next day, all the zombies except Junko were out in town once again. Junko decided that she wanted to stay at the castle to go through the song selection in the flash drive, while the others went out to see find a place where they could perform, guided by Mario.

Romero also stayed at the castle, being taken care of by Toadsworth, who has apparently taken a liking to the dog, even going far as saying he was more attentive and likeable than Tae.

With the exception of Saki and Junko, they all had their makeups on.

Mario brought the six zombies to the biggest theater building of Toad Town. It was a typical-looking performance theater, with audience seats, a stage, a large set of curtains, and all.

While standing on the stage, the Toad who was the owner of the theater asked the zombies, "What do you think of this place?"

"Not exactly the kind of stage for idol performances, but if this all you've got, I think it's good enough to suffice," said Ai as she looked around the place.

"Idols aren't a thing here in Toad Town, so this is all we've got," the Toad said to him.

"It's all right. We'll take anything!" Sakura said to him. "It's still a nice place!"

* * *

Back in the castle, Peach had invited Junko over to the balcony outside her room for some snacks and tea.

"I hope you look forward to our performance, princess!" Junko said to Peach.

"I'm really looking forward to it!" Peach happily replied. "By the way, what do you think of the cake?"

"It's really good!" replied the zombie. "You're a very good baker!"

"That's what people always say!" said Peach.

They continued to chat happily, and the people of Toad Town continued to carry on their daily lives as usual.

Unknown to them, something was approaching from the sky far in the distance.

It was a large wooden ship, flying through the air using the help of multiple propellers. Located in front of the ship was the figurehead of a monstrous-looking creature with an open mouth, a pair of horns, and a Mohawk going in between them.

As it soared through the air, its massive shadow was cast onto the ground below, grabbing the attention of life forms down there. Yet the people of Toad Town continued remain unaware of the airship approaching their location...

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Yes, HE'S finally coming! I'm sure you've all been waiting for him!

You can say this is why I've been updating very fast! I've been waiting for this moment for so long!

Please look forward to the next chapter!

The Gooper Blooper encounter is pretty much filler material. Due to dried squids being something of a recurring theme in ZLS and also Tae's favorite food, I felt like throwing him into this chapter for fun.

And did I just make a Yoshi tax fraud joke? I'm sure I did!


	16. Bowser Cometh

Forgot to mention this in the previous chapter... The zombies are wearing the casual clothing Peach gave them, but Junko is wearing a white dress with knee-length skirt that she bought at the Zero Gravity Mall.

 **Chapter 16  
Bowser Cometh**

* * *

As they leave the theater building, Mario asked the zombies, "How soon are you going to begin your performance?"

"We still remember our moves from the old songs well enough, so at most, just one round of practice is enough to get them down," replied Ai. "We've also been practicing the new one for quite some time already. I think we can perform in about two days."

"Isn't that a bit too soon?" asked the plumber.

"We're a pro at this!" Saki told him. "Plus, being zombies, we never get tired, at least not as much as living beings, so we can practice for an entire day nonstop!"

"What's everyone looking at?" asked Lily. Everyone looked and saw that the citizens were all looking at the sky, so they looked up as well. To their surprise, they saw an airship approaching the skies of Toad Town.

"A flying ship?!" said Sakura in surprise.

Mario narrowed his eyes with a look of anger. "Bowsa!"

The zombies were surprised to hear this. "Bowser?!" said Ai in surprised. "He's in that flying ship?!"

Sakura looked around and saw that some of the citizens were either nervous, scared, or looking unimpressed. While some of them commented about how they should run, some of them said more mundane things instead.

"Not this again..."

"What's new?"

"That guy is persistent..."

A Toad then turned to Mario and said, "Hey Mario... You know... The usual thing you do... Yeah, you get what I mean..." Mario nodded in response and gave him a thumb up.

Seeing this, Saki said to the plumber, "They're really used to this, aren't they?"

"After so many years, you'll feel da same," replied Mario.

"What... What do we do?!" asked a worried Sakura.

"Knowing him, hee'z definitely heading for da castle first to capture Peach," said Mario. "I'll just-a head there ahead-a of him and make sure da princess eez safe."

"Hey, what's that?" asked a Toad while pointing at the airship.

The bottom of the airship opened, and what appeared to be a speaker lowered from it. "That's-a new..." commented Mario.

Everyone looked curiously at the speaker that appeared from the bottom of the airship, and said speaker began to play a creepy-sounding music.

It was the River Twygz Bed theme from Super Paper Mario.

"What's that terrible music...?" grumbled Lily. "It gives Lily the creeps..."

"I agree..." commented Ai. "Is he trying to creep us out with that tune...?"

"I haven't seen him yet, but with a horrible taste in music like that, I already hate him..." said Saki. She then looked at Mario. "You have any idea why he's playing that freak tune?" However, Mario didn't reply but instead kept on looking at the sky. "Hey Mario, you hear me?" Again, there was no respond, so she went up to him. "I'm talking to you!" She got a better look at Mario's face and saw that he had an almost expressionless look on his face. She waved her hand in front of his face multiple times, but the plumber didn't respond at all. "Hey, what's wrong with you?"

The zombies looked around and found that all the Toads had the same expressionless face like Mario while looking at the sky, not to mention standing perfectly still. "What... What's wrong with everyone...?" asked Sakura, who was starting to look scared.

Yuugiri lifted the arm of a motionless Toad and touched the area in between his hand and arm. "There is still a pulse, though."

Confused, the zombies went around shaking and calling out at the people, but they were all motionless and didn't respond to them at all. "What is wrong with everyone all of a sudden?!" asked a confused Ai. "Why did everyone became mindless all of a sudden?!"

Lily continued to look at the airship as it headed for the castle. "Can it be... related to that creepy music?" he wondered.

* * *

From the balcony, Peach and Junko could see the airship approaching. "Oh no... Bowser is here!" said the princess in a worried tone.

"Bowser...?!" said Junko in shock. "Is he here to kidnap you?!"

Peach nodded. "There is no other reason... But don't worry; Mario will definitely save us! Quick! Let us go into the room!"

They were about to leave when they heard the creepy music played by the airship, as the latter had came close enough for them to be heard. When Peach heard it, she suddenly stopped moving. Junko was confused by why she didn't move, so she went up to her and waved her hand in front of her face. "Princess...? Princess?" Why aren't you moving?"

She even shook Peach, but the princess remained perfectly still and didn't respond in any way. She saw that the airship was coming closer and closer to the castle, which made her more scared. The zombie hurriedly went out to the hallway to call for help.

"What happened?" asked a passing by servant.

"Bowser is coming! And the princess suddenly froze in place for no reason!" Junko desperately told her.

"Oh my!" said the servant in surprise. She rushed inside the room to verify things herself, only to stop moving all of a sudden, much to Junko's surprise. She tried to shake the servant back to the life, but the latter remain frozen in place while sporting an expressionless look.

The zombie went back to the balcony to see that the airship was more or less directly above the place. It was then the creepy music stopped playing. Junko watched in fear as a figure appeared from behind the railing of the airship's deck, and then said figure leaped off the flying ship and landed onto the balcony with a powerful slam, so much that it might actually break apart.

The shaking caused by the landing made Junko fall to the floor, and the zombie backed away in fear while taking a good look at the person who showed up. She was shocked beyond words at what she saw.

 **BGM: Angry Bowser (Paper Mario)**

Standing there was a monstrous-looking turtle standing between two to three meters tall, not to mention having a wide and muscular body frame that only made him look more terrifying. He had pair of curved horns on his head, and in between them was a fiery red Mohawk. Wrapped around his arms were black bracelets with spikes.

"Is... Is that Bowser...?!" the zombie quietly said to herself with a look of pure terror. Thinking about it, neither she nor her companions knew what Bowser looks like, and none of them asked for a description of him either. She had assumed that because Bowser was obsessed with Peach, it must mean he is human as well. It was safe to say a monster turtle was not what she had in mind at all.

The turtle was soon joined by a turtle-like creature dressed like a typical wizard, descending from the airship on a flying broom. "Lord Bowser! Here is the tune you need for reawakening her!" the wizard told the turtle named Bowser as he handed the latter a smartphone with earphones attached to it.

Bowser grabbed the device from him and began searching through it. "Which one is it again, Kamek?"

"Yeah, let me find it for you..." said the wizard named Kamek. He took the device back from Bowser and searched through it. "Here it is!"

Kamek handed the device back to Bowser, who placed the earphones into Peach's ears before playing music from the smartphone. After a few seconds of hearing the music, Peach returned to her senses. Looking in panic, she asked, "What... What happened just now?!"

"You're awake, my love!" Bowser happily said to her.

Looking at him in shock, Peach said, "Bowser?! What did you do to me just now?!"

"Heheh! A new method for capturing you and making sure that Mario will never be able to harass me again!" replied Bowser with an evil smile. "We've cooked up a special kind of hypnotic tune that renders anyone who hears it mindless until I give them the order to do something! On our way here, we played it for all of Toad Town to hear, so now, everyone has become completely mindless and standing still, doing absolutely nothing!"

"The only way to change back is to listen to a tune for undoing this process," explained Kamek. "That was how Lord Bowser returned you to your senses!"

"How dare you?! You won't get away with this! Mario will stop you!" Peach angrily said to the villains.

"Bwahaha! I told you just know Mario won't be able to do anything! I saw him in Toad Town earlier, and surely he has heard the music!" said Bowser. "He is now a statue that won't do anything, not even rescuing you! Face it! Nobody will rescue you now, princess!"

Bowser then reached out to Peach and grabbed her arm, and the latter struggled to break free, but his firm grip made it impossible. "Let go of me!" cried Peach.

"You're coming with me, Peach!" Bowser said to her in an evil tone.

"Your nastiness! Look!" said Kamek all of a sudden while pointing at Junko, who was still seated on the floor, trembling in fright.

Bowser looked at the zombie and asked, "Who are you? And why aren't you mindless after hearing that tune?"

Junko was too scared to say anything, however, and only backed away little by little.

"Hey dad! How's everything?" said a young child's voice all of a sudden. They looked and saw a flying transportation device resembling a clown's head with a propeller beneath it lowering from the sky, and seated in it was a turtle that looks like a younger version of Bowser.

"Good timing, son!" Bowser said to his son, Bowser Jr. "You take the princess back to the ship! I have something to deal with here first!"

"Sure thing, papa!" said Bowser Jr. A mechanical arm then came out from the side of his Clown Car, and it grabbed Peach.

"Let go of me at once!" cried Peach as she struggled to escape, but the grip of the arm was just as strong as Bowser's.

Bowser Jr. ignored her and instead flew back to the airship, taking the screaming princess along with him. Seeing this, Junko stood back up and reached out her arm to her. "Princess!"

When Bowser approached the zombie, she took steps back in fear. "Who are you, and did you hear the music I was playing just now? If so, why aren't you mindless?" he asked her in an intimidating tone.

"I'm... Junko...!" she replied in fear. "I did hear it... and I don't know why... I didn't become mindless...!"

Bowser then asked her, "Did you see what I did to return Peach to normal just now?" The zombie fearfully nodded. Bowser inched his head towards her face in response, which only made her more scared. He then said to Kamek, "Take her along! We can't have witnesses!"

"Yes, your evilness!" said Kamek.

"What?!" said Junko in shock. Before she could do anything else, Bowser grabbed her right arm. "Let go of me!" Junko pounded her other hand against Bowser's hand while pulling away from him. She pulled so hard that her arm, along with the shoulder, fell off. Because this happened so suddenly, the recoil made her fall to the floor.

Bowser and Kamek looked at the dismembered arm in surprise. "What in the world...?!" said the former with widened eyes of shock.

Kamek turned to Junko and asked, "What are you?"

"I'm... I'm a zombie...!" replied Junko, who was now beginning to cry.

"A zombie?" said Bowser curiously and also with skeptism. "Either you're bluffing or you're taking your cosplay a bit too seriously!"

"No, she may be telling the truth, my lord," said Kamek as he observed Junko from head to toe. "Look at the stitches and the different colors on her skin... That is a clear sign of her being created by stitching several body parts together!"

"Now that you said it, she does look like a stitched up rag doll..." said Bowser as he took a closer look. "Either way, we're taking her along, whether she likes it or not!"

 **BGM Ends**

* * *

Back in Toad Town, the zombies were still trying to get all the mindless and motionless people moving. Saki went as far as punching them in their faces and guts, but she only succeeded in making them fall over as if they were mannequins.

Frustrated, she grabbed a Toad by the collar and shook him nonstop. "SNAP OUT OF IT ALREADY BEFORE I KILL YOU! YOU WANT TO DIE?!" There was still no response.

Tae also helped by biting and gnawing the people, but still, it was useless.

Looking around scared and worried, Sakura asked, "What happened to everyone...? Why did they stop moving and responding to everything all of a sudden?"

"Lily thinks it has something to do with the music being played just now," said Lily.

"If that is the case, how come we didn't become like these people?" Sakura asked him. The latter shrugged in response.

"Look! The airship is coming back!" said Ai, pointing at the sky. They looked and saw that the airship was indeed heading back towards the town direction.

They watched as the airship flew closer and closer to the sky above them until the shadow was over them, and then it stopped moving. Two objects then appeared from the airship and descended to the town. It was Bowser and Bowser Jr., both of them riding their Clown Cars. The zombies saw them descending behind some buildings, so they decided to go over there.

Over on the other side, Bowser and his son saw the motionless Mario, and the former laughed. "Haha! Look at you, Mario! Frozen like a statue! Looks like I got you good this time!" He then jumped out of the Clown Car and approached him. Poking the plumber in the head, he said, "So helpless... I can totally crush you right now!"

Just then, the zombies appeared from behind a building and ran towards them. When they saw Bowser, they stopped in their tracks. "Hey you!" Saki angrily shouted at the villain.

"Is... Is that Bowser?!" asked Sakura in shock.

"What is he?!" asked an equally shocked Ai.

"Such a terrible beast!" commented Yuugiri. Lily was struck with fear and grabbed onto her in response.

Noticing the zombies, Bowser said to them, "Who are you people? And why are you not mindless?!"

"You! What did you do these people?!" Saki angrily asked him while pointing at him. She fearlessly stepped towards him and said, "You better change everyone back to normal, or else I'll make you regret it!"

Bowser laughed at her, however. "Bwaha! You think I'm afraid of a girl like you? Not even Mario can intimidate me with those words! What makes you think you can?"

"You better not underestimate me, or else you will die!" shouted Saki angrily before charging at him with her fist pulled back, all the while letting out a war cry. Bowser threw a quick, straight punch at her when she got close, sending her flying back to the others. She landed onto the ground on her front in such a way that her upper and lower torsos were folded backwards and touched each other. Basically, her rear end was resting above her head, and her legs hanged down in front of her face. Such a position was not natural for a living being at all, even for a contortionist.

"SAKI!" gasped Sakura.

Determining that the turtle before her was an enemy, Tae let out a beast-like roar before running on all fours at Bowser and then pouncing at him. Though surprised by her action, Bowser was still able to swat her out of the air with his massive hand. Tae crashed into a building wall so hard that her limbs and head all disconnected from her body and fell to the ground.

Bowser and Bowser Jr. were both surprised to see this. "Wow! I didn't know you're so strong you can literally break people into pieces in a single hit, papa!" said the latter.

"I'm surprised myself too..." commented Bowser, and then he eyed the zombies before him again. "Now why haven't you become mindless like everyone else? Did you hear the music I played while on the way to the castle?"

"If you mean that terrible tune you call music, then yeah! It sucks!" Saki angrily shouted at him.

"What did you do to everyone? Did you somehow use that music to render everyone like this?" Ai asked Bowser.

"Isn't that obvious? Thanks to hypnotic music we came up with, I've got everyone here in Toad Town under my control! They will only obey me and no one else!" replied Bowser. "I still don't why you haven't become like them after hearing it. You're just like that other girl back at the castle who claims to a zombie."

Hearing this, the others were surprised. "Junko?! What did you do to her?!" asked Sakura.

"Oh, so you know her? If you must know, I've taken her prisoner as well!" replied Bowser. "She saw how I was able to return Peach to normal, and because I don't want witnesses, I've decided to take her along to ensure the secret doesn't spill out!"

"You fiend! Give her back at once!" said Saki angrily as she unfolded herself and stood back up. She also had to readjust her spine so that she could stand upright properly.

"You're no threat to me at all, even if you're not mindless like everyone else!" said Bowser before jumping back into his Clown Copter. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a princess to throw into my dungeon!" And then he looked at Mario. "Of course, I shouldn't forget to do something about my worst enemy! I can crush him now, but I prefer to make him die an ironic death! Heeheehee!"

"You're not getting away!" Saki angrily shouted as she ran towards the airborne Koopa. She jumped as high as she could at him, but the Clown Copter rose higher and escaped her reach, so she ended up falling flat onto the ground.

"Bwaha! So long, suckers! Let's see you survive what's to come!" said Bowser as he flew back to the airship.

"Yeah! So long, suckers!" Bowser Jr. taunted the zombies, and then he rejoined his father.

The zombies watched as the two villains returned to the airship, and Sakura asked, "What do we do?! What do we do?!"

"GET BACK HERE AT ONCE!" Saki angrily shouted at the airship. "FIGHT LIKE A MAN IF YOU ARE ONE!"

The speaker underneath the airship then made a broadcast, and Bowser's voice was heard. "Attention all citizens of Toad Town except for Mario! This is my command to you all! I want you to attack Mario! Rip him to pieces! Tear him to shreds! Give him the most painful death you can think of! After helping you folks for so long, it's time to repay him with cruelty! Bwahahaha!"

The zombies turned to look at Mario with a worried look, and they noticed all the Toads turning to look at Mario, all of them still with expressionless faces.

"Oh, and while you're at it, go after anyone who isn't mindless for whatever reason," added Bowser. "Make them suffer and feel pain! Go crazy and wreck the place if you want to! Toad Town is now your playground! Have fun! Bwahahahaha!"

"That villain!" said Saki angrily while shaking her fist at the airship.

The zombies then noticed that the Toads around them were starting to close in on them. "Um... What are you going to do...?" Sakura asked an approaching Toad in fear. The Toad suddenly reached out at her and grabbed her by the collar. "Wha?! What are you doing?!"

Ai, too, was being attacked by some of the Toads, who were attempting to grab her. "Get away from me!" she shouted at them while trying to shove them away.

"Lily is scared!" cried Lily as he hugged Yuugiri tightly, and the courtesan wrapped her arms around him to protect him. When a Toad approached them with a less than kind intention, she slapped him across the face. However, the Toad didn't react in any way and approached them again.

"You want to die?! Get away from me and my friends!" Saki angrily shouted as she punched and kicked away the Toads who were closing in on her. However, they kept on getting back up like nothing happened and did the same thing. She looked around and saw that her companions were having a hard time trying to defend themselves. Pushing away the Toads around her, she hurriedly rushed up to them and helped threw away those Toads.

"What do we do?!" cried a terrified Sakura. "Everyone's attacking us!"

"Put Tae back together first!" Saki told her while pointing at the mindless zombie who was still in pieces. Tae's head was angrily "barking" at the Toads, who were also approaching her. Seeing this, Saki rushed over to Tae herself and shoved away the Toads, and then Sakura helped her connect Tae's limbs and head back to the body.

After her body was restored, Tae stood back and let out a loud cry before charging at a random Toad and smacked him away with a swing of her hand. She then rushed over to any Toad who were closing in on her friends to knock them away.

"Yeah! Go get them, Tae!" Saki said to Tae, cheering at her.

"We forgot Mario!" pointed out Sakura. She pointed at Mario, who was down on the ground, while Toads around him were stomping and punching him mercilessly, and the plumber was completely motionless with his eyes wide open.

"Hey you! Pick on someone who can fight back!" Saki angrily shouted before running up to them to pull them away. She then carried Mario on her back and said to the others, "Let's find somewhere to hide first!"

"Where?!" asked Ai.

"Just run and find one!" replied the blonde zombie.

They looked around and saw a large amount of Toads closing in on them. "What do we do?! We don't have anywhere to run!" cried Sakura.

"Tae! Clear a way for us!" Saki shouted at the mindless zombie.

Tae let out a cry before charging in a random direction, and with a powerful impact, she sent the Toads in her way flying, thus creating a path. The zombies then rushed down the path created and followed her.

As the zombies ran for their lives, they looked around and saw the Toads wandering around aimlessly and occasionally vandalizing their surroundings.

"It's... It's like we're in a middle of a zombie apocalypse!" said Ai.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

The River Twygz theme is one of the creepiest tunes in the Mario franchise, so I feel like it's a great tune for turning its listeners into mindless "zombies."

The original term for zombies didn't refer to undeads, but rather, people who are rendered mindless through methods such as hypnotism, drugs, or voodoo. They are still very much alive, just brain dead but can still follow simple orders.

So yeah, Toad Town is more or less undergoing a zombie apocalypse, and the victims are, ironically, real zombies...

Anyway, Bowser's came up with a really sinister and even dark plan this time around, so much that if it weren't for Franchouchou's presence, Mario is truly finished. But wait... How come the zombie idols aren't affected by the music? You'll find out soon! Or maybe you already have an idea why.


	17. Dawn of the Brain Dead

**Chapter 17  
Dawn of the Brain Dead**

* * *

Aboard Bowser's airship, Peach and Junko were locked together in the same cell. Peach watched as Junko reattached her dismembered arm back to herself. When the arm was properly connected, the skin fused together at a relatively fast speed, impressing Peach.

"So all your wounds heal at a fast pace?" asked the princess.

"Only ones that we receive when as zombies," explained Junko while moving her arms in circles to verify that it was properly reconnected. "Ones that we received when we were alive or at the time of our deaths won't heal. This is why my body is all stitched together, probably using body parts of different people, as I was likely in pieces from dying in a plane crash. If Bowser had torn off my arm from the stitched area, then I wouldn't be able to reattach it."

"That's still very convenient!" said Peach.

"We also don't feel pain, unless it's a very strong one, in which case it will sting a bit," Junko further explained. "Still, I'd rather not get into any form of injuries..." She then looked around with a worried and scared look. "What are we going to do now?"

"Don't worry; Mario will definitely save us!" said Peach, not looking worried at all. "He always does!"

"You seem very used to this..." commented the zombie.

Peach smiled. "It's been like this for years already after all!"

"Oh, you can be sure he won't be coming to rescue you this time!" said Kamek as he entered the prison room. Both the girls turned to him. "Mario has been spotted down in Toad Town, frozen in place and unable to do anything! All of Toad Town has been hypnotized by our music! We even hacked into the radio station so that this music plays indoor as well! This time, nobody will save you!"

"Mario definitely will! Even if he can't, Luigi will! He's as brave as Mario!" Peach told him with confidence.

"Ha! If Mario can't, what makes you think his inferior younger brother can? For all I know, he's currently weeping in bed about how everything is done for now that his brother is mindless!" said Kamek, laughing at the thought of Luigi being heroic. "Plus, if he was at Toad Town that time, then you're out of hope too! Hahaha!"

Peach glared at Kamek as she remained confident that the brothers would somehow escape this fate and put an end to things. Junko had a worried look on her face, wondering what would become of them both. She also wondered what had become of her friends, unsure if they had fallen into the same fate as the rest of the citizens.

* * *

Back in Toad Town, the other six members of Franchouchou continued to run for their lives from the hypnotized citizens of Toad Town, almost of whom were pursing them nonstop. All the while, Saki was carrying the mindless Mario on his back, and he was targeted by the citizens as well.

Thankfully, they had Tae help clearing out the crowd. She was the strongest of the group, so it was easy for her to plow down the army of mindless mushroom people before her and send them flying with the swing of her limbs.

"Darn it! They're everywhere!" said Saki angrily as she looked around, all the while carrying Mario on his back.

"I don't think there's a safe place to hide anymore like this!" said Sakura.

"Look for a building! There's got to be some place where there aren't any people!" suggested Saki.

As they continued to run, a Toad suddenly lunged at Yuugiri from the side and latched onto her. Shocked, the courtesan struggled to push him away, and when she did so, she gave him a powerful slap across the face. "Shame on you! Jumping onto a woman like this!" she angrily said to him. However, a couple more Toads lunged at her afterwards, pushing her onto the ground and pinning her there. Thanks to having enhanced strength, Yuugiri was able to easily get back up and shove them away.

Meanwhile, another Toad lunged at Lily, but the latter punched him hard in the guts and actually sent him flying back quite a bit. Looking at his fist, he said, "Wow... I know I'm stronger than when I was alive, but this is unexpected..."

It was thanks to their enhanced strength that they were able to survive all this time, but even so, the number of Toads didn't decrease, and it didn't help the fact that they kept on getting back up and never once staying down for real.

Looking around desperately, Saki saw that the mindless Toads were not dwindling in number and were still closing in on them. "Darn it! This situation is worse than I thought!"

"What do we do?! What do we do?! We're done for!" cried Sakura while looking around in great panic.

"HELP!" screamed someone all of a sudden. The zombies were surprised to hear someone crying for help out loud, and it seemed to be coming from nearby. They looked through the crowd of Toads and saw someone dressed in green running in their direction. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be someone familiar.

"It's Luigi!" pointed out Ai.

The plumber in green was running down the road with several Toads chasing him from behind. "SOMEONE HELP ME!" he cried as he ran in the zombies' direction. When he saw the Toads standing in front of the zombies, he came to a stop and screamed again. However, those Toads were swatted away by Tae immediately afterwards, and then she went after the Toads who were chasing Luigi and made a quick work out of them as well. Luigi turned to the mindless zombie when she looked at him and backed away in fear. "Please! Don't hurt me!"

"Luigi! You're all right!" Saki said to him with a look of joy.

Luigi looked at them in fear and asked, "Are you not like these people?"

"No, we weren't affected by the music for some reason," Ai told him.

"What music?" asked Luigi.

"You didn't hear a creepy music when Bowser arrived?" Saki asked him.

Luigi shook his head. "I wasn't at Toad Town until a few minutes ago, and I didn't even know Bowser arrived until you said it just now! When I came here, everyone started behaving like zombies and attacked me when they saw me! And is that Mario you're carrying?!"

Saki nodded. "Yeah, your big brother got hypnotized by Bowser's music... Bowser then gave orders for these... zombies to attack Mario and anyone not mindless."

"Can we run and talk at the same time?!" asked Ai as she looked around in panic to see more Toads closing in on them.

Saki then said to Luigi, "You carry Mario! That way, I can have free hands to fight back!" She handed over the mindless plumber over to his younger brother, who carried him on his back.

"What are we gonna do?!" asked Luigi.

"Find some place to hide!" said Saki as she punched a Toad straight in the face.

Seeing a certain path that had little Toads wandering around, the group ran down it as fast as they could. They eventually saw the hospital in the distance. "I know! Let's hide in the hospital!" suggetested Saki.

"But hospitals have lots of people inside!" Sakura reminded her.

"They shouldn't have heard the music while in there, so the people in there should be normal!" reasoned Saki.

"Sounds plausible," agreed Ai. "Let's go there!"

As they were closing in on the hospital, they saw several Toads standing up ahead, all of them looking at them. "Darn it! We were so close!" said Saki angrily.

"Out of the way!" shouted Luigi angrily as he ran ahead of Saki. He lowered Mario from his back but still held on to his hands as he began spinning in circles at a fast speed, swinging Mario in circles as a result. Using this method, he used Mario as a makeshift bludgeon to smack away the Toads up ahead with such a force that they were actually sent flying quite a bit of distance. Using this method, he was able to clear the way, and then he placed Mario properly on his back again. "C'mon! Into the hospital quick!"

He noticed that the zombies had eyes wide open in shock. "Whoa... That was... cool!" commented Saki as she gave a thumbs up.

"Something just came into me... so I... Anyway, just go in there fast!" said Luigi, and then they all rushed inside the hospital.

Once they were all inside, they stopped to take a breather. "We should be safe in here..." said Ai, but when she looked up, her expression changed for the worse.

Everyone in the hospital were all mindless, staring into thin air, but when the zombies and Luigi showed up, they all turned their attentions to them and began moving towards them.

"Why are the people here also mindless?!" asked Sakura.

They thought of running back outside, only to see that several Toads had gathered outside and were coming in. Left with no choice, the group rushed deeper into the hospital, taking the path with lesser people. "Now what?!" Ai asked Saki.

"Look for an empty room or something!" replied the blonde zombie in panic.

As they ran through the place, they noticed that a few of the Toads were not mindless and were running and hiding from the mindless ones. "There are some who didn't become mindless!" pointed out Lily.

"Perhaps they didn't hear that tune as well," theorized Yuugiri.

"Somebody help me!" cried a Toad who was hiding inside a trash can, which was being kicked by two mindless Toads over and over.

Seeing this, Saki rushed over to help him by pulling away and punching those Toads. "You're all right now, mister," she said to the Toad hiding in there.

The Toad poked his head out of the trash can, saw her face, and screamed, "ZOMBIE!" And he hid back inside again

"Hey! It's me, the hot as hell zombie idol Saki!" she told him.

"You! Over there!" shouted someone. The zombies and Luigi turned to see an open door, and Dr. Toadley was in the room, yelling for them to come into this room. Saki tried to get the Toad inside the trash can to come out, but he insisted on staying in there. Fed up with his persistence, she ignored him and then joined the others in the room Dr. Toadley was in.

Once they were inside, the doctor locked the room. Now they could finally catch a break from all those running. "Thanks for helping us..." Ai said to the doctor.

"You should be safe here," Dr. Toadley told them.

"How come you're not affected?" Sakura asked him. "Didn't you hear the music? All those people became like this because of a scary tune that Bowser played when he came here..."

"Did I hear the scary music you said? No, I did not!" said Dr. Toadley. "I was listening to my own music off my smartphone when all of a sudden, people out there became as if they are zombies!"

"Good for you, then..." said Ai. "Still, I'm boggled as to why the people in here are affected as well... Where did they even hear that music?"

"Lily thinks it has to do with the speakers," said Lily. "When we were running through the place, Lily noticed that there were speakers on certain parts of the ceiling, and something tells Lily that it is possible Bowser hacked into them. If the speakers are connected to radios, then it is possible for him to hack into radio frequencies to make them broadcast his creepy music. That's just a theory..."

"You sure know a lot, shrimpy," Saki said to her.

"Lily was in the TV industry before, you know," the blue-haired zombie reminded her. "You see a lot of these things in, like, spy and action movies. I never starred in those genres, but I still studied them."

"A plausible theory!" said Dr. Toadley. "If music is the reason these people became like this, then something must have been done to their brain waves!" He then looked at Luigi. "Is that a brain dead Mario you are carrying with you? I believe so! It so happens that I have a machine here used for observing brain waves, so if you will allow me to observe his brain waves, I may find a way to change him back to normal!"

"That would be great, doctor!" said Luigi. He placed Mario onto a chair, and then the doctor attached several wires from a machine used for observing brain waves onto his head, after removing his hat, of course.

Once the wires were all attached, Dr. Toadley got to work on the machine and scanned his brain. The computer screen that was hooked onto the machine then showed a green line that was flat for the most part. "Interesting! There is little to no brain activity in him!" said the doctor. "It seems that he is indeed in a brain dead state, but the fact that it is not a completely flat line shows that he still capable of responding to things to a certain degree!"

"Well, I shook him and yelled into his face, but he never responded," Saki told him.

Dr. Toadley then snapped his finger next to Mario's ears while looking at the screen. He noticed that the lines moved a little when he did this. He snapped his finger again and saw that the same thing happened. "Yet the lines responded when I did this! I believe that if music is the reason he became like this, then it must also be music that changes him back to normal!"

"So we just have to play music?" Ai asked him.

Dr. Toadley didn't respond but instead got his smartphone and played music from its MP3 next to Mario's ear. It was the title theme of Super Mario World. When the music was played, Mario began moving his head left and right while shaking his hands slightly, much to the surprise of everyone.

Dr. Toadley looked at the computer screen and saw that the line moved quite a bit. "I think I can indeed confirm that music will have some kind of effect on him," he said. "However, it seems that this tune is not the answer." He then shifted through various soundtracks on his smartphone.

Tunes he used include the Chill and Fever themes from Dr. Mario, the overworld theme of the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2, the Bob-Omb Battlefield and slide themes from Mario 64, the underwater theme from the original Super Mario Bros., and his own theme from Bowser's Inside Story.

While Mario did respond to the soundtracks in ways that mostly consisted of shaking his head and moving his limbs, he did not return to normal at all.

After using every single soundtrack in his smartphone, the doctor said, "I'm afraid I do not have the correct tune for returning him to normal. Tell me: what was the tune used for turning everyone like this sound like?"

"It was terrible... It sounds as if some guy is chanting something while an eerie tune plays in the background... Sounds fitting for a horror movie..." replied Lily.

"Then I propose the theory of letting him hear a cheerful and peaceful-sounding music," suggested Dr. Toadley. "But like I said, all my music options here are used up, and there is still no change in Mario. We will need to find some other music to rest and see things."

"Any suggestions?" Ai asked him.

"There is a music store about a fifteen minutes walk from here," the doctor told her. "With such a large selection there, I believe there should be one that can get the job done."

"So all we have to do is let him hear cheerful and peaceful music, right? That shouldn't be too hard!" said Saki.

There was then pounding on the door. Looking at the door, Ai said, "The problem is how are we going to get there with all those zombie-like people out there..." Saki then giggled, which Ai noticed. "What's so funny...?"

"Isn't it ironic?" replied Saki. "We're the real zombies here, and yet we're the ones hiding from the danger that are those zombie wannabes!"

"It is indeed an irony," said Yuugiri, also finding their situation somewhat amusing.

"Yeah, but it's not so funny if you think about how grave are situation is right now!" Ai said to him in frustration. "It's not like these people really died and came back to life, in which case if we, like, kill them, it wouldn't be that of an issue. They're still alive and capable of being restored to normal, so we have to somehow get past them without hurting them too much! If we have to get to that music store, then we'll have to run on foot, because driving a car and running over them or something like that is out of the question!"

"For your information, I know how to drive a car as well," said Saki. "Just because I'm a biker doesn't mean I can only drive motorcycles."

"If you run, you can get there in less than ten minutes," Dr. Toadley told Ai.

"Doesn't make things any easier..." Ai said to him.

There's one thing I don't understand..." Sakura said to Dr. Toadley. "We also heard that music, but we didn't get hypnotized at all..."

"Do I know the answer to your question? I believe I do!" said the doctor, and then he pointed at her. "Do you remember when I performed a brain scan on you? Do you remember what the result was?"

"Uh... I think it was nothing... We don't have brain activities at all..." replied Sakura.

"Exactly!" said Dr. Toadley. "If the music is what caused Mario's brain activity to become like this and also everyone else's, then it did not affect you zombies because you have no brain activities! Your are all considered brain dead, despite looking very much alive! Without a brain activity, hypnotism will have no affect on you!"

"That... explains a lot if you ask me..." said Ai in response.

"Makes Lily like being a zombie even more!" said Lily.

Dr. Toadley then went to the back of the room, where there was another door. "Take this path and find your way out from here!" the doctor told them. "If I remember correctly, the supply room can be found down this hall, so use whatever you can in that room to help get to the music store."

"What about you?" Sakura asked him.

"Will I be staying here? Yes I will!" the doctor told her. "Who knows if I am needed here for any reason. You go on ahead and do not worry about me! Find the right music for changing Mario back to normal and then use it to change everyone back to normal as well. Also, you should take this with you."

He went over to a drawer and opened it to take out an object resembling a white toy gun. Showing it to the zombies and Luigi, he said, "This gun contains sleeping gas that will surely put your attackers to asleep, regardless if they are mindless or not. There is limited ammo, so use it wisely."

"Why do you have something like that...?" asked Luigi.

"A doctor must always be prepared for all sorts of troublesome patients, such as those with mental issues that make them behave violently, so I keep this gun with me to shoot them with sleeping gas and calm them down," explained Dr. Toadley.

"You're a hardcore doctor, you know that?" said Saki as she took the gun from him. "Looks simple, but I can't wait to try it out anyway!"

There was pounding on the door again, and Dr. Toadley said to them, "Be on your way now! The fate of this town now depends on you!"

The zombies and Luigi nodded, and then then the latter carried Mario on his back before leaving the room through the back door with the others.

* * *

It was just like Dr. Toadley said. The hallway led to the storage room, where there were various kinds of equipment. The zombies grabbed whatever they could that they believed would be able to help them deal with the mindless Toads outside.

"Strange choice of weapon, but beggars can't be choosers..." said Ai as she swung around a mop like a baseball bat to test how well it works as a bludgeoning tool.

"I think we should wear protective gears as well," said Sakura as she stepped forward wearing a worker's helmet and a life vest, and in her hand was a crowbar. Lily also wore a helmet and a life vest and was armed with a broom.

"Nah, I'm fine like this!" said Saki as she aimed the gun around the place with one hand.

"Well, if you're all ready to go, then..." said Saki, but she was interrupted by Luigi.

"I'm ready!" said the plumber in green. They turned to look at him and was surprised by his appearance. He was wearing a hazmat suit that covered his whole body, and even his face couldn't be seen clearly through its partially transparent blue visor.

"Overcompensating much...?" Ai said to him.

"You've got to as prepared as possible for situations like this," Luigi told her. He then went up to Mario, who was seated against the wall. "All right, let's go!"

"I will carry him, Sir Luigi," Yuugiri told him while placing her hand on his shoulder. "You may be hindered in your movements if you carry him, but for us zombies, we have capabilities that surpass humans, so it would be better if you allow me to carry your older brother."

"Well, if you say so..." said Luigi with a shrug. "I trust him to you then." He then grabbed a mop to use as a weapon.

"I will not fail you," said Yuugiri as she picked up Mario and carried him on her back.

"You sure you can handle this?" Sakura asked the courtesan.

"This is nothing to me," the latter told her with a smile.

"All right, if you're all ready, then let's get moving!" said Saki.

From the storage room, the group made their way through the hospital, taking the route with the least people, until they arrived at one of the place's multiple exits. Once out there, they were greeted with the sight of several mindless Toads wandering around.

Luigi, Sakura, Ai, and Lily all had nervous looks on their faces. Yuugiri didn't show any signs of fear and nervousness but instead had a look of determination. Tae was growling while looking around with angry eyes as if she was ready to tear someone apart. Saki had a look of enthusiasm as she held up the gun. "All right! Let's do this!" said the blonde zombie with an enthusiastic grin.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Congratulations to those who guessed it has something to do with the zombies having no brain activities that they aren't affected by the hypnotic music!

Anyway, expect some soundtracks from the Mario franchise to be used as the folks try to undo Mario and the Toads' hypnotism in the next chapter. The results may end up being hilarious!


	18. Music!

**Chapter 18  
Music!**

* * *

The zombies and Luigi made their way through the town, hoping to get to the music store as soon as possible. They knew things weren't going to be easy, as there were a seemingly endless amount of mindless Toads wandering around, trying to attack them.

It didn't take long before they came across a large group of Toads approaching them, so they got into defensive stances.

"Time to see what this baby can do!" said Saki with enthusiasm as she pointed the gun Dr. Toadley gave her at the group of Toads approaching from the front. She pulled the trigger, and the gun fired a cloud of blue gas... that only traveled for a few inches before dissipating. It came absolutely nowhere near those Toads at all.

Everyone had unimpressed looks on his or her faces when they saw this. "Lame..." commented Lily.

Saki felt ripped off by Dr. Toadley and wanted to throw the gun onto the ground to shatter it, but she contained her anger and instead lowered it. "I prefer using my fists anyway!" she said in frustration.

The mindless Toads began increasing their speed as they got closer to the good guys. In response, Saki let out a cry as she charged into the approaching army. She slammed her elbow into the face of a Toad and sent him flying before punching and kicking all the ones around her. Despite being outnumbered, the zombie was able to hold herself with no issues against them. Having enhanced strength helped out too.

Seeing this, Tae let out a cry as she rushed over to help. With powerful swings of her arms, she was able to knock away several of the mushroom people.

"Wow! Saki's strong!" said Sakura in awe. "And Tae well!"

"Yeah! Get them! Beat them up!" cheered Lily while swinging his broom around.

"Better watch ourselves as well!" Ai reminded them as more Toads approached them from the sides. With a swing of her mop, she was able send a couple of Toads flying.

"Don't make Lily hurt you, because it will really hurt!" said Lily with enthusiasm as he swung his broom at some more Toads, knocking them to the ground.

Saki screamed as she smacked a Toad in the head over and over with her crowbar until he fell face first onto the ground. Looking at the seemingly unconscious Toad with a panicked look, she said, "Sorry! Sorry! I didn't want to do this!"

"Take this! Take this!" shouted Luigi as he smacked the head of a Toad over and over using his mop before using it like a baseball bat to smack him away.

Yuugiri looked around with a serious expression as a couple of Toads closed in on her. Sakura saw this and was going to rush over to help her, thinking that with her hands carrying Mario, she wouldn't be able to defend herself. The red-haired zombie was proven wrong when the courtesan swung her leg at the Toads and sent them flying quite a bit of distance. Another one approached her, and she also sent it flying with a kick straight to her face.

"Wow...! Yuugiri, you're so cool!" commented Sakura in awe.

Looking at Sakura and winking, Yuugiri said, "You'll be surprised at some of the things I'm good at!"

"Hey guys! Let's keep on going!" Saki called out to her friends while motioning for them to move on ahead. "I've cleared the way!"

The group pressed on ahead, plowing through the army of Toads they came across. For the most part, they were able to clear away their enemies with ease. Saki was able to put the sleeping gas gun to use when she got close enough to a Toad to shoot him in the face with, thought she was still disappointed at its almost lack of range.

After about ten minutes of running and fighting their way through the town, they finally arrived at the music store. "That's the one!" said Luigi, pointing at a rectangular building with a musical note on top of the door.

They all rushed inside, and they were surprised that there were mindless Toads inside as well, albeit not much. The Toads were walking around aimlessly and occasionally overturning shelves when they came in. "Not this place too..." grumbled Ai.

Pointing back at the door with her thumb, Saki said to the Toads with an angry look, "Sorry, but store's closing, so get out!"

Because there weren't that many people inside the store, the zombies didn't take long to toss all of them outside, and with little effort as well. After all the Toads were outside the store, they locked the door.

Luigi removed the helmet of his hazmat suit and said, "There's a stereo system at the back. Let's look for CDs with the right kind of music to change everyone back to normal!"

"Which one do we pick? There's a lot!" said Sakura, looking at the CD-filled shelves in the place.

As Luigi was the one familiar with the music of his world, he looked through the shelf containing CDs of peaceful-sounding music. He eventually picked one and looked at the table of contents at the back. "Theez one looks good!" he said. He then headed over to the counter, where there was a stereo system.

"What music did you pick?" Ai asked him as she and the other zombies gathered around him.

"One of da most peaceful-sounding soundtrack I can think of," replied Luigi as he put the CD into the system. "Eet even won awards! I'm sure you'll like eet as well!"

Music began playing after the CD was loaded properly, and the plumber shifted through the song selection until he came to the one he was looking for. It was the tune Stickerbrush Symphony from Donkey Kong Country 2. To be precise, it is the Tropical Freeze version that is being played.

They all listened to the peaceful soundtrack mainly consisting xylophones and wind flutes, and Yuugiri commented "Such a serene tune!"

"Told ya you would like eet!" said Luig. They then turned to look at Mario to see him sitting on the chair motionlessly. He did not respond to this tune at all.

"It doesn't seem to be affecting him..." pointed out Sakura.

"I was hoping eet would..." said Luigi. "Guess we need something more upbeat? Wait a minute..." He then went to one of the shelves and looked through it for a few seconds before coming back to the stereo system with another CD. "Theez should do da trick!"

He swapped the existing CD with the new one, and a song began playing. It is Body Rock from Wario Ware D.I.Y.

A female vocal was heard shortly after the music began:

 _Gettin' fit and funky, is that your desire?_  
 _Get down and boogie till you catch fire!_  
 _Dancing shakes the soul and makes you feel alive!_  
 _Shapes up your body, high five!_

They turned to look at Mario when the singing began. To their surprise, Mario stood up and... began doing aerobics, stretching his limbs, touching his toes, twisting his body, and more. He did this while sporting an expressionless face.

They watched with somewhat freaked out expressions as Mario performed aerobics nonstop in place. "Is this aerobic music...?" Ai asked Luigi, and the latter nodded in response.

"I figured eetz upbeat enough to get him back to his senses..." he said.

"Well, it sure is doing it's job to get him moving..." said Lily.

Saki went up to Mario as the latter continued to exercise and waved her hand in front of his face, but the plumber didn't respond at all. She turned back to the others and shook her head.

"Guess we'll have to try something else," said Luigi. He turned back to the stereo system, only to notice that Tae was performing aerobics to the song as well. "Your friend eez into theez as well..."

"Well yeah... We trained her well when it comes to responding to music... Heheh..." replied Sakura sheepishly.

Luigi stopped playing the song, which resulted in Mario stopping his actions and standing still in place. He then went to another shelf to look for something. Saki also went to another shelf to see if she could find something. She found one and showed it to Luigi. "You think this will do?" asked the latter with a skeptical look.

"Don't underestimate these kinds of song!" Saki told him with confidence. "I'm sure it'll affect his mind greatly!"

They returned to the stereo system, and as Luigi was putting it into the system, Ai asked Saki what she picked. "A rap!" replied the latter with a grin.

The rap began playing, sung by a male:

 _So they're finally here, performing for you_  
 _If you know the words, you can join in too_  
 _Put your hands together, if you want to clap_  
 _As we take you through this monkey rap_  
 _Huh!  
_ _DK! Donkey Kong!_

It is the infamous DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64.

When Mario heard the rap, he began dancing to it with motions such as swinging around his arms and waving them in the air, shaking his body, and more.

Not only where the zombies mind boggled by his dancing, they also had something to say about this silly-sounding rap.

"What on earth is this...?" asked Ai.

"I'm not sure if I like it or hate it..." said Sakura.

"I know this... A friend of ours composed it with his own little group..." explained Luigi. "When it was first released, it received widespread hate, but over the years, it became a cult classic and has a large number of fans nowadays."

"I think we can say Tae is a fan as well?" said Lily, who was looking at Tae dancing to the rap in the same manner as Mario.

"Mamamia... How are we going to get-a him back to normal...? It would be good eef there eez something to narrow down to..." said Luigi. He then thought of something. "Wait-a minute... I rememba seeing eet earlier..."

He rushed over to one of the shelves and looked through it until he found the CD he was looking for. He rushed back to the stereo system and inserted the CD into it to began playing a new song. Cheerful music began playing, and it was soon followed by the voice of a middle aged man singing:

 _Do the Mario!_  
 _Swing your arms from side to side_  
 _Come on, it's time to go!_  
 _Do the Mario!_  
 _Take one step, and then again_  
 _Let's do the Mario, all together now!_  
 _You got it!_

It's the song Do the Mario from the old cartoon show Super Mario Bros. Super Show.

When Mario heard this song, he began dancing to it by shaking his body and swinging around his arms, and he took a step or two forward from time to time. Tae also followed the plumber's dance moves.

"What's this song...?" asked Ai.

"Lily finds is really catchy!" commented Lily as he did a small jig with a smile on his face.

"Mario had a part in a short-lived children TV show years ago, and theez eez da ending for eet," explained Luigi. "I thought hearing a song about-a himself will do something, but again, no..."

Suddenly, they heard the sound of glass shattering, and they turned to see that the Toads had broken through the front door, which was made of glass. "Oh no!" gasped Sakura.

"Darn it! Those guys are persistent!" said Saki angrily.

"Quick! Find something that can change them back to normal already!" Ai desperately told Luigi.

"But I don't know which one!" cried the plumber in panic as he removed the previous CD.

"Tae and I will hold them back! You quickly find the right track!" Saki told Luigi before rushing over to the approaching Toad with Tae to fight them.

"Just grab as many CDs as you can! We'll go crazy with them until one of them works!" Luigi desperately told the other zombies.

They nodded and rushed over the shelf containing peaceful music and grabbed whatever CD they could find and giving it to Luigi. Luigi tried them all and waited for a few seconds to see if Mario would respond in some way. Sometimes the latter wouldn't respond, sometimes he would move around a bit, and sometimes he would dance.

All the while, Saki and Tae did their best to beat up the Toads and force them out of the store.

Luigi began to panic when none of them worked. "What do we do?! None of them are working!"

"I still have one over here!" Sakura said to him while showing him a CD.

Luigi looked at the disc cover and saw that the title was _Proof of Existence_. Without a second thought, he put the CD into the stereo system and played it.

A peaceful and hopeful-sounding music began playing. It is the tune Proof of Existence from Super Paper Mario.

They looked at Mario, hoping to see some kind of reaction from him. The plumber in red closed his eyes as if falling asleep while standing, and when the Toads in the store heard it, they all stopped moving and closed their eyes as well, much to the surprise of Luigi and the zombies.

All the mindless people opened their eyes again, and then they looked around in confusion and asked several questions.

"What happened?"

"What am I doing in the music store? I was at home just now!"

"Why am I lying on the floor?!"

"What... What happened?" asked a confused Mario.

The zombies and Luigi were overjoyed to see that everyone was back to normal. "It worked!" exclaimed Sakura.

"MARIO! YOU'RE FINALLY BACK TO NORMAL!" exclaimed Luigi as he threw himself at Mario to embrace him.

Confused, Mario asked, "Luigi! What's-a wrong? Why are you crying? What happened?"

"You're going to have a hard time believing it, but either way, it's good that you're back to normal!" Ai said to him with a smile.

* * *

Toadsworth and some servants were hiding in terror inside one of the rooms of Peach's Castle. They were some of the few people inside the castle who didn't hear the hypnotic music that made everyone mindless. Those mindless Toads, consisting of servants and guards, were now coming after them. In fact, they were pounding against the door.

Romero was also in the room, barking angrily at the door.

The Toads inside were hiding behind an overturned table, trembling in fear. "What do we do?! That door won't hold forever!" cried a servant.

"Where's Mario when we need him?!" cried another one.

"Don't worry! He'll definitely come save us!" said Toadsworth with confidence. "However, we cannot always rely on him! Until he comes, we have to defend for ourselves! And don't worry about the door! It's very high quality, so it..." Before he could finish speaking, a hole burst open in the door, big enough for a Toad wielding an axe to poke his head inside, much to the horror of the servants.

Romero barked angrily at the axe-wielding Toad, who continued to slam his axe against the door to make the hole bigger and bigger until it was finally enough for him and the others to come in. "OH NO! WE'RE DONE FOR!" cried one of the servants.

Romero angrily charged at the axe-wielding Toad and bit his leg hard, and the latter shook his leg in an attempt to get rid of the dog, but the latter gripped hard to prevent flying away.

Seeing this, Toadsworth stood up from behind the overturned table and waved his cane around in the air. "Letting a dog do everything? I'm not that kind of person!" he angrily said. "Don't underestimate an old bone like me! I still have some fight from my younger days in me! Hiya!" He then ran at that Toad and whacked him in the head over and over with his cane, even making him drop the axe.

The other Toads began to surround him, and despite being outnumbered, Toadsworth kept on attacking relentlessly, saying that he would fight to the grave. Romero also helped attack the mindless Toads as well.

The servants were in awe to see them fighting fearlessly, so much that they were inspired to stop hiding and help them. Charging out from behind the overturned table, the servants ran up to the mindless Toads and began beating them up.

Suddenly, the tune Proof of Existence was heard. The mindless Toads stopped what they were doing, and a few seconds later, they returned to their senses and looked around in confusion, though one of them still got smacked in the head by Toadsworth anyway.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" that Toad said to him.

"Huh? You're back to your senses? Why didn't it work sooner?!" asked Toadsworth.

Mario and the zombies suddenly appeared outside the room, and the former was holding a portable music player with its volume turned up to the max. Said player was playing the aforementioned tune. "Eez everyone in here all right?" he asked.

"Master Mario! You showed up at last!" said Toadsworth happily, and the servants were equally happy.

* * *

The crisis in Toad Town was finally averted. The tune Proof of Existence was broadcasted throughout town via radios and speakers, and all those who heard it returned to normal. None of them had memories of what happened, so many were confused as to why their surroundings changed.

Back in the castle, the zombies explained to everyone what happened. Toadsworth was, unsurprisingly, angry about this. "That dastardly Bowser! He's gone too far this time!" said the elderly mushroom angrily. "He dare turn our beautiful town in a mess using this horrible method and even kidnap the princess! Not only that, he even kidnapped our guest who shouldn't have anything to do with this!"

"Don't-a worry; I will rescue Peach for sure!" Mario assured him while punching his palm.

"I know you will, like always!" Toadsworth said to him.

"We're going as well!" said Saki, which surprised the others. "He kidnapped Junko too! There's no way we're sitting back and doing nothing knowing that our friend is taken away!"

"But we don't know how to fight!" Ai told him. "What can we do if we go with Mario? We'll just be a burden to him!"

"Right! I don't think things will be as easy when compared to the situation we went through just now!" added Sakura.

Turning to her friends, Saki said, "We're zombies! We're strong and can't die, at least not so easily! If we try our best, we can definitely accomplish something! Don't you want to get back at Bowser for making a fool out of us?"

"Look, I'm not happy about what he did and also the fact he kidnapped Junko as well, but this is too much for us to deal with!" Ai told her. "Just because we're stronger than an average person and can't be killed so easily doesn't mean we can handle something like this!"

"Fine! You stay here if you want to! I'm sure Tae is more than willing to go with me!" said Saki, and then she turned to the mindless zombie and asked if she wanted to go. The latter raised her arms into the air and made made zombies noises while nodding. "See? She's eager to get a bite out of Bowser as well!"

"Hold on, girls," Toadsworth said to them. "If it's a fighting chance you want, then I know just the things that will allow you all to have a piece of Bowser!"

A question mark appeared over Sakura's head. "What do you mean?"

Toadsworth grinned and said, "All you girls need are some power-ups!"

* * *

Two Rocky Wrenches were busy polishing their wrenches outside the prison room of Bowser's airship. All of a sudden, a scream came from behind the door leading into said room, surprising them. It was Peach. "Junko! What are you doing?! What's gotten into you?! Stop! Please stop! Somebody help me!" cried the princess in terror.

Confused about what was happening in there, the two moles went into the prison room, and they saw a terrified Peach backed up against the corner of the cell and using her hands to try to push Junko away, as the zombie was trying to close in on her while making malicious-sounding growls. The latter was behaving like a feral zombie.

The Rocky Wrenches walked up to the iron bars, and one of them asked, "What's wrong with her?"

Peach managed to shove Junko aside and then ran up to the iron bars and cried, "Help me! My friend suddenly started attacking me, and she won't respond to me like a normal person at all!" Junko suddenly grabbed Peach from behind and pulled her back, and the princess screamed in terror again.

Shocked, the moles hurriedly open the cell door and then rushed inside to help the princess. One of them grabbed Junko and tried to pull her away. "Hey you! Get off the princess! Lord Bowser won't like it if something happens to her!"

Junko let go of Peach and let out an angry growl as she grabbed the Rocky Wrench and lifted him into the air. The zombie glared at him while roaring into his face, bringing him great terror, so much that he screamed. All the while, Peach and the other Rocky Wrench were up against the wall, watching the situation before them with looks of horror.

Junko then flung the mole in her hands into the wall, knocking him out, and then he turned around to face the other two. Holding up his wrench, the Rocky Wrench fearfully said to her, "Stay back! I'm warning you! I know how to use this!" Junko, however, groaned like a feral zombie as she slowly approached them, so the mole threw the wrench at her.

The wrench struck Junko right in the forehead, causing her entire upper torso to bend back at an unnatural angle, but she straightened herself and acted as if nothing happened, much to the mole's surprise.

Suddenly, Peach pushed him face first onto the floor before pounding him in the back of his head over and over with her fists until he passed out. After she was done, she took a deep breath and then looked at Junko, who was now looking like a normal person. "It worked!" said Peach happily.

Junko's face turned red as she said, "Did... Did I scare you too much just now...?"

"I have to admit... your performance was so real just now that I thought you became feral for real!" admitted Peach.

Hearing this made Junko blush even harder, so much that she placed her hands over her face in embarrassment. "I'm sorry...! I didn't think I could be so scary...! I... I..."

"Don't worry; it paid off in the end," Peach told her. "Now let's get out of here!" The two girls then rushed out of the prison room, having successfully pulled off the ruse of fooling the prison guards into unlocking the cell.

As they rushed down the hallway of the airship interior, Junko asked Peach, "Do you know the way?"

"I've been here several times whenever Bowser captured me and was leading me to the cell, so I memorized the path to the Clown Car," Peach told her. "Just follow me!"

They were turning around a corner when they saw a Hammer Bro walking down from there, so they hurriedly got behind the corner. The Hammer Bro thought he saw someone appearing for a split second up ahead just now, so he went over there to get a better look. When he appeared from the corner, Peach acted fast and snatched his away hammer, which was stored in a pouch tied around his waist, and used it to smash him in the side of the face, as his head was protected by a helmet. The Hammer Bro was knocked out as a result.

"Quick! Let's go!" said Peach as she and Junko continued on their way. The former brought along the hammer in case she needed it.

After a bit of running around, they finally arrived at the room containing Bowser and his son's Clown Cars. They were located in the middle of the room, standing upright via tripods that came out from underneath them.

"Quick! You get into the big one first!" Peach told Junko. "I'll go open the hatch!" Junko nodded before running over to the larger Clown Car and jumping inside it, while Peach went over to a lever and pulled it down. Doing so caused the ceiling directly above the Clown Cars to open.

Peach was going to run over to the Clown Car when suddenly Kamek warped into the room, right in front of her. "Oh no you don't!" he said to her. "You think I didn't see you and your zombie friend sneaking around the hallway earlier?"

Peach tried to hit him with the hammer, but with a blast of magical energy from his wand, the Magikoopa easily disarmed her. He fired another magical blast, this time aiming at Peach's body, and a rope appeared around the princess, binding her.

"Princess!" gasped Junko. She was going to get out of the Clown Car to help, but Peach told her not to.

"You escape first!" Peach told her. "Go back to Mushroom Kingdom and get help! Don't worry about me!"

"You're not getting away!" said Kamek as he readied to shoot Junko with his wand.

Junko ducked into the cockpit when a magical blast was fired at the side of the Clown Car, but the latter somehow managed to endure the blast. Scared and desperate, the zombie reached for the key and turned it, and doing so started the engine of the Clown Car. Though she wasn't sure how to pilot it, she still decided to test her luck. Pulling up a lever on the control panel, she was able to get the Clown Car to start spinning its propeller and float into the air.

"Hey you! Lord Bowser won't tolerate thievery! Get out of there at once!" shouted Kamek angrily as he fired another blast at the Clown Car. The flying machine rocked a bit, but was otherwise unharmed, and by then it, was already flying out of the ceiling.

"I'm sorry, princess! I'll definitely go back and call for help!" said Junko in fear and also in slight tears as she slowly exited the airship.

The Clown Car left the airship completely, and she messed around with the controls and somehow got it to take off in a particular direction. As she was flying away, Bowser came running over and shouted, "Hey you! Get back here with my ride!" Obviously, she didn't listen to him.

Kamek appeared next to him and said, "What do we do, your highness?!"

"Shoot her down!" replied Bowser angrily.

"But that's your favorite ride!" Kamek told him.

"I'll just get a new one!" said Bowser angrily.

Under Bowser's command, one of the cannons installed onto the airship fired a Bullet Bill at the escaping Clown Car. Junko saw the bullet approaching and screamed in fright. Not knowing how to pilot her ride properly, she was struck with full force by the Bullet Bill, which resulted in an explosion that rocked the Clown Car badly. In fact, it nearly tipped over and tossed her out.

Another Bullet Bill was fired at her. This time, the Clown Car went down in flames, and the zombie screamed in terror as she held onto the side for dear life, all the while having a serious case of PTSD of her death.

Bowser and his henchmen looked down the side of the airship and watched the Clown Car crash down onto the barren landscape down below. "Ha! Serves you right for stealing my property!" said Bowser gleefully. "You wanted to escape? Congratulations on succeeding!"

"Are you sure it was all right to destroy that thing...?" Kamek asked him.

"That one's old, so I thinking of making a new one anyway," Bowser told him.

Down below the deck, Peach saw the Clown Car doing down in flames from one of the windows, and she was horrified. "No...! Junko! Noooooooo!" she cried, thinking that the zombie was dead.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

I figured that since I used Super Paper Mario music to hypnotize everyone, then it only makes sense that I use something from that game to return them to normal as well. Proof of Existence sounds like a hopeful and optimistic tune, so I decided to make it the answer to undoing the hypnotism. Hope you found it fitting as well!


	19. Powered Up

I forgot to mention this in the previous chapter. I know some of you have questions regarding some of my stories, but I must let you know that I will not answer every one of them due to various reasons. If you do not see me answering your questions in your reviews, it's not because I didn't see them, but because I have chosen not to answer them for certain reasons. Please understand.

 **Chapter 19  
Powered Up**

* * *

Toadsworth led Mario and Franchouchou to the basement of Peach's Castle. They arrived at a large steel door with the picture of a star printed on it, and Toadsworth took out a key to unlock it. Within the room were various treasure chests, and most of them were open, though there nothing inside them.

The most notable thing about the room were a total of eight item blocks floating in the air. "There they are!" said the elder Toad while pointing at said blocks with his cane. "Those item blocks contain power-up items that we saved here in case we need them. You can come across them while out there, but they're not easy to find. They are sought by many people, as it allows even the weakest of them to have fighting chances against strong foes!"

"So you're lending us these power-ups to fight Bowser?" asked Saki, sounding enthusiastic.

"You want to rescue you friend and get back at him for bringing all these on you, right? I can understand that feeling, so I'm giving you a fighting chance!" Toadsworth told her. "All right! Give those blocks a smacking from either side, preferably from below, and see what you'll get!"

"Are you sure this is a good idea...?" asked an unsure Sakura.

"It will definitely be a good idea!" said Saki as she went below one of the blocks and then jumped up to hit it from below with her fist. An orange flower flew out from the top of the block and fell back down, and the zombie caught it before it touched the floor. "A flower?"

"That's a Fire Flower!" Toadsworth told her. "With that, you will harness the power of fire! You know, like generating fire from your body!"

"How'd you use it anyway?" asked Saki while observing the flower all over.

"Just crush it in your hands!" the Toad told her. "If you crush the whole thing, then the effect will last for hours. It should last until after you've defeated Bowser and return."

Saki wrapped the Fire Flower in between her hands before crushing it hard. When she did so, the flower disappeared in a puff of orange powder, and said powder came out from her hands and swirled around her, gradually becoming fire. Saki was surprised at the sight of this, as well as her friends.

"What's happening?!" asked Sakura.

As the fire swirled around Saki, her clothes began to change appearance. Her shirt became white, flame patterns appeared on the sleeves, and the green shell became a red shell. The entirety of her pants now had a flame design on it. Also, the scars on her body glowed with orange light.

Looking at her new appearance, especially her glowing scars, she said, "Wow! Neat!"

"Cool!" commented Lily.

"All these power-ups alter your appearance in some way," explained Toadsworth. "If you want to use its powers, you just have to think!"

"Think?" said Saki curiously. She looked her hand, and just by wanting it to happen, a ball fire appeared on her palm. "Wow! This is awesome! Can I do this as well?" She folded her hand into a fist, and then the entire fist caught on fire. "All right! This is awesome!" Wanting to experiment more, she roundhouse kicked the air, and just like that, her foot caught on her and left behind a fiery trail as it sliced through the air. The others jumped back in shock from this. "Yeah! I love this!"

"Watch out, will you?!" Ai angrily said to her. "You could've accidentally burned us!"

"Good-a to you know you like-a eet!" Mario said to Saki. "Da Fire Flowa eez one of my favorite power-ups!"

"I think I know why too!" said Saki as she boxed the air with her fists on fire. "I totally love this already!"

Lily raised his hand and happily said, "Lily's next!" He ran underneath another item box and jumped up to hit it from below. An orange mushroom with yellow spots and a yellow propeller above it popped out. He caught it and asked, "What's this?"

"That's a Propeller Mushroom. It grants you the power of flight!" Toadsworth told him.

Hearing this, Lily wasted no time in crushing the mushroom in between his hands. The mushroom turned into dust, which swirled around him so fast that a cyclone was formed. His whole body glowed in white light, and when it disappeared, he was now wearing a red track suit and a matching color helmet that had holes on both sides for his ponytails to come out of. In front of the helmet was his star accessory, and above the helmet was a yellow propeller.

Looking at his suit and touching his helmet, he said, "Wow! Nice! Let me guess, if Lily simply thinks, she can fly, right?" Just by doing that, the propeller spun at a fast speed, causing him to fly into the air. Looking down, he said excitedly, "Woohoo! This is awesome!"

"You can do more than just flying," Toadsworth told him. "Try performing a spin, and the power of wind will be in your hands! Just don't do it now... You don't want to make a mess of this place..."

"Yuugiri sis! Pick one quick! I want to see what you'll get!" said Lily while flying around the room using his newfound power.

"I am interested in this as well!" said Yuugiri before going underneath one of the blocks. She jumped up slightly and thrust her hand against its bottom hard, and a blue flower popped out.

"That is an Ice Flower!" Toadsworth told her. "It grants you the power of ice!"

Intrigued, Yuugiri crushed it in between her hands, and snow began swirling around her and caused her clothing to change appearance. Originally wearing a yellow shirt and a green skirt, the former was now white and the latter now light blue. The Delfino Dream logo on her shirt now had an icy look to it, not to mention being covered in snow.

As if she knew what to do, Yuugiri held out her hand and made a small snow cyclone appear on her palm. Opening her other hand, she generated cold wind which in turn created an ice crystal. Smiling, she said, "I am very fond of this!"

"Wow! I'm excited now!" said Sakura as she raised her hand. "I want a power-up too!" She then rushed underneath an item block and jumped up, hitting it from below. A bronze bell with eyes popped out of it, and she didn't wait for Toadsworth to explain what it was before crushing it in between her hands.

The bell disappeared, and Sakura's whole body glowed with white light. When the light died down, she found herself wearing a pink cat costume. "What is this?!" she asked in surprise.

"That was a Lucky Bell, and it grants you a cat costume and also the abilities of a cat!" Toadsworth told her.

"Wow! That costume is so cute!" Lily said to Sakura. "You make me jealous!"

"I think it's very cute too!" said Sakura as she observed her whole body. She then moved her hands in the air like how a cat does so and said, "Meow! Meow! I'm a cute little kitty now!"

"I think it suits you very well, Sakura!" Saki with to her a smile.

"You can also turn into a statue in that form," Mario told her.

"Really?" asked Sakura. With just a thought, the zombie transformed into a golden statue. To be precise, a beckoning cat statue, complete with a coin. She changed back to normal a few seconds later. "Wow! That was awesome!"

Tae wasted no time in running underneath an item box and jumped straight up, hitting her head against it from below. The box shattered into pieces, and a green box with an exclamation mark on it appeared. Before Toadsworth could explain what it was, the zombie smashed it with her hand. A silver flash appeared around her, and when it disappeared, her appearance was now metallic all over. She looks like a metal statue.

"Wow! Tae! You're... You're completely made of metal!" Sakura said in surprise.

"She broke a metal box just now," explained Toadsworth. "Good luck trying to do any harm to her, because she's now as hard as steel! She's also much heavier too, which I'm sure she can use to her advantage!"

Tae raised her arms into the air while making a zombie cry, which sounds filtered, and then she slammed her hands onto the floor so hard that cracks appeared on it. "Whoa! Did she become stronger as well?!" asked Saki in surprise.

"Indeed, so I would appreciate it if you don't go wrecking this place with your new strength, please..." Toadsworth said to the mindless zombie.

Saki then turned to Ai and said to her, "C'mon! There's some more over there! Go and see what you get!"

Ai looked unsure, however. "I'm not sure... I still don't think I'm up for this sort of thing..."

"Oh, come on! Don't be such a scaredy-cat! With our newfound powers, we have basically become superheroes!" said Saki while generating a ball of fire on her palm.

"Yeah! Lily wasn't sure about doing this before, but now that she is a superhero, she really wants to fight Bowser now!" said Lily, who was once again flying around in the air.

"C'mon! Let's go and rescue Junko and the princess together!" Sakura told Ai. "If we work together, we will definitely succeed!"

"Don't-a worry; I'll definitely keep-a you all safe!" Mario told Ai. "I've been through this several times, so rest-a assure that everything will be okay eef you follow my lead!"

Ai thought about it for a few more seconds before saying, "Fine... I hope I don't regret it..." She went underneath one of the item blocks and hit it from below to produce a boomerang with a plant stalk underneath it. "What's this?"

"That's a Boomerang Flower," Toadsworth told her. "With that, you will be able to produce an infinite amount of boomerangs for combat purposes!"

Ai crushed the flower in between her hands. She glowed with blue light, and when it disappeared, she was wearing a blue helmet, and there were shields resembling turtle shells attached to her arms, not to mention her legs. She almost looks like she is wearing protective gears to go skating. Holding out her hand, Ai thought of making a boomerang in her head, and just like that, a white boomerang appeared in her hand. Swinging around the boomerang like a knife, she said with a slight smile, "I think I can get used to this!"

"Well, you girls all look great and ready for combat!" Toadsworth said to them while adjusting his glasses.

"Indeed you are!" agreed Mario.

"Yeah! I'm all fired up!" said Saki as she generated fire in both her fists. "Time to give a Bowser a piece of my mind!"

"I bet Junko is going to be so surprised to see us like this!" said Sakura. Tae threw her arms into the air while making a filtered cry, as if agreeing with her.

Toadsworth then said to Mario, "Master Mario, there are two more item blocks, so please take whatever they contain with you. You need all the preparations you can when facing Bowser!"

Mario nodded before going to hit both the item blocks. They produced a golden flower and a turtle doll wearing a black helmet. "A Golden Flower and a Hammer Suit!" said Mario. "I'll keep them for later." He then put them into his pocket. Strangely enough, both items shrunk in size when they touched his pocket so that they could fit inside it.

Ai noticed this and asked, "Did those two items just shrink?!"

Mario nodded. "That's how they are. Eet eez for da sake of easy carrying! All right-a, if you're ready, then let's-a go!"

"Wait a minute!" said Saki, and then she looked at her companions. "Shed your makeups!"

"What?! Why?!" asked Sakura in surprise.

"To show those villains what we really look like and give them a good scare!" replied Saki with a smirk. "You think they're going to be scared of a bunch of cute girls going after them? Sure, we may still look hot when as zombies, but it's still enough to make them think twice about messing with us! Let's not hide who we are any longer and show them what we are truly capable of!"

* * *

Junko opened her eyes and groaned as she sat up. Looking around, she saw that she was in a barren wasteland of sorts, and there were what she believed were volcanoes in the distance. She also saw the wrecked Clown Car behind herself.

Remembering what had happened, Junko touched all over herself to see if she had any missing body parts, but she was glad to know that her body was still intact, and any injuries she received from the crash landing had already healed up.

Standing up and looking around with a fearful face, she asked, "Where... Where am I?" She then noticed a large castle in the distance. "What is that place...?" Carefully observing the sinister appearance of the castle, she thought it was perhaps Bowser's castle.

"What... What do I do now? Which way is the Mushroom Kingdom...?" she asked nervously. The zombie was lost and confused regarding her situation. Crash landing in this volcanic and sinister-looking place was the last thing she had in mind.

Just as she was wondering what to do, she thought she heard the sound of something scuttling around. She looked around and was shocked to see a Scuttlebug, appearing over a rock. "A giant spider?!" she said in shock.

As if the appearance of an overgrown four-legged spider wasn't enough, it began crawling in her direction. Junko took steps back in fear while pointing her hand at it. "Stay back! Don't come near me!" She heard more scuttling sounds, and she looked around to see more Scuttlebugs appearing and closing in on her from all sides.

The zombie was terrified, so much that her legs gave way, so she fell to the ground. She screamed her help while huddled together, and the Scuttlebugs continued to close in on her with malicious intentions.

Suddenly, a ball of fire stuck one of the Scuttlebugs. This shocked the other spiders, so they hurriedly ran off, not bothering to see what it was that attacked one of their kind. Junko looked up in confusion and was surprised to see her companions and Mario running towards her.

"Junko!" Saki called out to her while waving her arm in the air.

"EVERYONE!" Junko cried in joy and also with tears running down her eyes. She ran towards them and wrapped her hands around Saki. "Thank you so much for coming for me! I'm so scared!"

"Good to see you're all right!" Saki said to her while petting her head.

"We're so glad you're all right, Junko!" Sakura said to her. "We were on our way to rescue you!"

Junko pulled away from Saki and said, "I escaped from Bowser's flying ship using his personal ride, but he shot me down..."

"Are you all right?" Ai asked her in concern.

"I'm all right," replied Junko. "But I was still terrified... It was like reliving what killed me in the first place..."

"Good thing it didn't kill you again!" Saki said to her.

"But how are you here? I thought you were all rendered mindless by Bowser's music," said Junko.

"It didn't work on us due to our brains being considered dead," Ai explained to her.

"And we've managed to change everyone back to normal by playing a certain soundtrack!" Sakura told her.

"Eet'z thanks to your friends Toad Town eez saved!" Mario told her. "As for how we got-a here so fast, eet'z because we took-a short-a-cut using a warp pipe. Bowsa's neva knew about that warp-a pipe's existence, and I always use eet to come here."

"Now we're going to Bowser's castle to fight him and rescue the princess," Lily told Junko.

"What?! You're going to his castle and fight him?!" asked Junko in surprise while pointing at said castle.

Saki nodded. "Yep! We got our hands on some cool power-ups that gave us superpowers so that we can fight back against him! Oh yeah..." She turned to Mario and told him to give one of the two power-ups he obtained to Junko.

Mario nodded and reached into his pocket to pull out the Golden Flower, which he gave to Junko. "Wow...! It's so beautiful!" she commented.

"Crush it in between your hands and see what happens!" Saki told her.

Though confused, Junko did as she said. When the flower was crushed, golden powder swirled around her and caused her to glow in golden light. When the light disappeared, the others were in awe at the change that Junko undertook.

Junko looked as if she was made of several different alloys attached to each other. The darker parts of her skin were now gold, the lighter parts were silver, the greener parts were bronze, and the dark blue parts were pink gold. The dress she was wearing was now shiny and colored like platinum.

"Wow! Junko! You look so beautiful!" exclaimed Sakura.

"My! That is indeed quite a sight!" commented Yuugiri.

"You really should look at yourself in the mirror!" said Mario.

Junko looked at her body and was amazed at the transformation she underwent, even though there was no mirror available for her to look at her face. "What happened to me...?!" she asked in awe.

"Da Golden Flower grants you da ability to attack with golden and silver fire, and in your case, probably even bronze, pink gold, and platinum fire!" Mario told her. "All you have to do is think, and you'll be able to do so!"

Junko did as Mario said, and a ball of golden fire that sparkled appeared in her palm, much to her amazement as well as the others. She made the fire disappear and then asked, "You want me... to join you in this cause?"

"Yep! Now that you have powers, let's wreck that place together and beat up Bowser!" Saki told her.

"But... I'm not a fan of violence!" Junko told her. "Just because I have powers now doesn't mean I like fighting! And I don't even know if I can make use of it properly!"

"Don't-a worry; I'll make-a sure that you all are safe!" Mario told her with confidence.

"I was unsure about this at first as well, but now that we're here, we might as well give it our all," Ai told her. "I'm sure we can definitely do it!"

"Right! Lily is filled with excitement about saving the day!" said Lily.

"That's right, Junko! If we work together, we can definitely pull through this!" Sakura told her with confidence.

Seeing that all her companions were eager to head into battle, Junko said, "All right... I'll join you! I don't know how much I can contribute, but since you've given me powers, I will put it to use!"

"That's the spirit!" said Saki with a grin.

"All right-a! Now that-a you all are reunited and ready, let's-a go to Bowsa's castle!" said Mario while adjusting his hat.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

What do you think of the power-ups I gave Franchouchou? I tried to find fitting ones for them, and somehow, I settled with these choices, thinking they suit each of them the best.

I took some creative liberties with Ai's boomerang outfit, because I think wearing a turtle shell like how Mario and co. do so in the games doesn't look well on her. Similarly, I took creative liberties with Junko's appearance after using the Golden Flower so that she isn't simply a reskinned version of the Metal Box power-up.

I'm sure we'll never see the zombies getting involved in any form of fighting action like this in official medias, so please enjoy the next coming chapters the best you can!

And sorry, Luigi is sitting this one out. It's already crowded enough having to make eight characters go through Bowser's castle.


	20. Hassle in the Castle

I realized that Junko's skin actually has four different colors, not three, and they are white, black, dark blue, and green. I went back and changed her appearance after obtaining the Golden Flower slightly. White is silver, black is bronze, dark blue is gold, and green is pink gold. Not a major change, but still feel like keeping you updated anyway...

Also, the design of Bowser's castle I'm using is based on New Super Mario Bros. Wii's.

 **Chapter 20  
Hassle in the Castle  
**

* * *

After returning to his own castle, Bowser wasted no time in locking Peach up in prison, like he always did when he had her back in his castle.

After taunting her about how he truly won this time and that nobody will ever be rescue her again, he went to his throne and reclined on it, satisfied with what he believed was his first true victory.

"Heheh! I still can't believe that this happened!" he said in delight. "I wish I could've been there to see Mario getting torn to pieces! I'm sure Toad Town is in ruins now too!"

"You have won big time today, your evilness!" Kamek, who was standing next to his throne, said to him with glee. "I'm sure you can go ahead and become the king of Mushroom Kingdom now that nobody is going to stop you!"

"Indeed! It's time to expand my kingdom's boundaries!" said Bowser with an evil smile.

As he was saying this, the Elite Trio, a group of three high ranking subordinates consisting of Private Goomp, Sergeant Guy, and Corporal Paraplonk, came up to the evil king. "Lord Bowser," Paraplonk said to him. "We would like to congratulate you on your victory. We heard about your plan succeeding!"

"Of course it would succeed! This plan is failproof, as nobody other than us knows how to undo the hypnotism!" claimed Bowser, sounding proud.

"But please forgive us for saying this, your highness," Sergeant Guy said to him. "I still recommend that we keep our guards up and tighten the security for a few days in case Mario somehow snaps out of it and comes charging to this place."

Hearing this, Bowser had a look of anger on his face. "Are you saying that my plan will somehow fail and that Mario is still alive?"

"You have to be prepared for everything, my lord," Goomp said to him, a bit scared about his rage. "In the very least, let us tighten the security for a day, and if Mario does not show up at all by the end of today, then we can be sure that he no longer walks this world and that we can relax."

"They have a good idea, your evilness," Kamek told Bowser. "As much as I hate to say this, Mario has been able to get through everything you've thrown him in the past. As perfect as this plan sounds, we should still be cautious and prepare for the likeliness that he somehow survived the ordeal."

"You guys worry too much, but if you insist, go ahead and increase the security," Bowser said to his subordinates. "I still think this is pointless..."

Just then, a Koopatrol rushed into the throne room in great panic. Stopping in front of the others to catch his breath, he said, "My lord! Mario is spotted outside the castle gate!"

"What?!" said Bowser in shock as he shot up from his throne with widened eyes.

* * *

Sure enough, Mario and Franchouchou were outside the castle, standing on the bridge that crossed the lava moat surrounding the building and in front of the massive gate.

"Let me get this straight..." Ai said to Mario while looking up at the gate. "You come here by yourself all the time and make it through the entire architecture, beat up everyone in your way and eventually facing Bowser himself and defeating him in a fight, and then you rescue the princess and escape with her... All this by yourself?!"

"Yep!" said Mario with a nod.

"Wow! You must be really strong to be able to do all this by yourself!" Sakura said to him. "I thought you always brought an army with you."

"Or you sneak in like a spy and secretly rescue the princess and then escaping just as stealthily," said Lily.

"Or maybe they're all a bunch of weaklings that they can't do anything to a single person..." said Ai, still having a hard time believing that Mario did everything by himself in the past.

"I do get help from Luigi occasionally, but most of da time, I always do everything myself," said Mario. "Theez time, I have you girls helping me, so I'm sure things will be even easier than before!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go in there already!" said Saki, sounding impatient.

There was a security camera located next to the gate, and it captured them on video and broadcasted it to Bowser, who was watching it from his throne room via a flat screen lowered from the ceiling.

"It really is him! How did he snap out of the hypnotism?!" he asked in disbelief. "And he even has those unknown girls with him!"

Seeing Junko, Kamek said, "The girl who stole your ride and got show down survived as well! And looking closely, all those girls have odd skin colors, the color that brings to mind zombies..."

"Who cares what they are? They're all going down for stepping foot here!" said Bowser angrily while squeezing his fist. "Open the gates and welcome them to their doom! Tell the troops to get ready for battle!" He then turned to the Elite Trio and said to them, "Why are you still standing there? Get to work!"

"Yes sir!" they said before rushing out of the room.

* * *

Back outside, the massive gate slowly opened, much to the surprise of the zombies. "All right! Let's-a go in!" said Mario.

"The door just opened for us to go in...?" asked Junko.

"This totally screams trap..." said Lily.

"That's how eet always eez," Mario told them. "Bowsa always open da gate for me to go in.

"No, seriously... What's the point of this if he wants to keep you from rescuing the princess...?" asked Ai.

"I guess he's very confident that his forces will be able to eliminate me, though you'd think he learned that eet eez not possible afta so many years of failure..." said Mario.

"Yeah, he does sound like an idiot..." said Saki, and then she punched her palm. "Anyway, if they're welcoming us, then let's go ahead and accept their welcome party!"

The group stepped through the gate that opened for them and arrived at the courtyard out front. The first thing they saw were an army of Goombas and Koopatrols standing there, blocking their way forward. The gate behind them also slammed shut, surprising some of them.

"Looks like they're ready to welcome us," said Mario while cracking his fists.

"You shall go no further, Mario!" one of the Goombas said to him. "Under the orders of Lord Bowser, we will defeat you here and now!"

Sakura, Ai, and Junko felt nervous and scared seeing so many opponents appearing before them, while the others zombies looked rather eager to get started. Mario said to them, "Watch and learn how I do things first!" Without another word, the plumber rushed towards the army up ahead.

 **BGM: Battle Theme (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door)**

Mario leaped towards the group of Goombas and landed on top of the one in the center, flattening him. All the Goombas turned to him, and then he bent down and performed a breakdance-like move to kick in every direction, sending all the mushroom-like creatures flying.

The Koopatrol standing the closest to him threw a punch at him, but Mario caught his fist and then spun in circles to use the armored turtle as a makeshift bludgeon and knock away everyone within range. He then let go of the Koopatrol to hurl him in another group of Koopatrols standing not too far off.

"Get him!" shouted another Goomba as he led a small army of his own species towards Mario. The latter fearlessly ran towards them and jumped onto the lead Goomba, bouncing off him and onto the ones behind him until an entire row of them was flattened. The remaining Goombas then surrounded him to gang up on him, but with powerful punches and kicks, the plumber sent them flying into the sky and falling back down on their heads.

As the plumber battled them all by himself, the zombies were amazed at how well he was performing. "Wow! He's so strong!" commented Sakura.

"No wonder he was able to do all this by himself in the past!" said Ai.

Saki had an impatient look on her face as she said, "I want to punch someone in the face already! I didn't come all the way here just to watch him fight and not get myself involved!" As soon as she finished saying that, an axe was thrown at her and embedded into the side of her head.

"SAKI!" gasped Sakura in shock.

Saki turned to the Koopatrol who threw axe at her with an intimidating glare before pulling it off her head, and the latter was surprised that she seemingly suffered no consequences from getting hit in the head, which wasn't possible. "You don't throw this at people if you're not asking for a fight, so I assume that you have a death wish throwing this at my head," she said to her in an intimidating tone.

"How are you still alive?!" the Koopatrol asked her. Saki threw the axe at him, but rather than aiming it at him, she threw it onto the ground before him, which was still enough to shock him.

"I'm your worst nightmare!" said Saki as she ran up to him at a fast speed and, with a fiery uppercut, sent the armored turtle flying high into the sky.

A group of Koopa Troopas then showed up with bazookas on their shoulders, and one of them shouted, "Get her!" Aiming their weapons at the blonde zombie, they fired Bullet Bills at her.

Grinning "evilly," Saki lit her hands on fire and pulled them back before thrusting them forward, which resulted in a large flamethrower being unleashed. The continuous stream of fire ignited the Bullet Bills and continued heading for the Koopa Troopas, setting them on fire. The turtles ran around while screaming in agony from the fire that was burning them.

Shocked by what she did, Junko said, "Saki! You... You're burning them to death!"

"So? If they have no qualm trying to take our lives, then it's only fair that we fight back with the same intent!" replied Saki, feeling no guilt at all about what she did. She turned around to look at her companions and saw that they what shocked looks on their faces. "Relax! It's not like I'm going to become a killer after this is over and kill anyone who pisses me!"

"Get those girls!" shouted a Goomba as he led his own small army towards the rest of the zombies.

Seeing them approaching, Lily said, "I'll deal with them!" He then ran towards the Goombas, despite Sakura telling him not to be so reckless. Remembering what Toadsworth told him about this power-up granting him the power of wind if he goes for a spin, Lily balanced himself on one foot and spun in a manner similar to a ballerina. "Super Lily Cyclone!"

In doing so, he formed large amount of wind around himself that allowed him to spin nonstop, all the while moving towards the Goombas. The mushroom-like creatures were picked up by the approaching cyclone and sent for a spin before getting hurled in random directions.

The other zombies were in awe at what they saw. "Wow! That awesome, Lily!" commented Sakura.

Wanting to get in on some action, Tae let out a loud cry before running on all fours towards a Koopatrol. She lunged at the turtle and pinned him onto the ground before mercilessly pounding her fists onto his face over and over. She was suddenly sent flying to the side from the swing of a large hammer and crashing into a wall.

Thanks to her new metal form, she was able to shrug off the impact, and she looked and saw that it was a Sledge Bro who attacked her. Tae let out a cry of anger as she ran towards the Sledge Bro on all fours, who readied his hammer to hit her again. When he swung his weapon, she leaped over it and and gave him a painful headbutt to the face, knocking him on his back. Tae then jumped onto his body and punched him in the face over and over with a look of anger.

Several hammers were then thrown at her, but they all bounced off her metal body harmlessly. She looked and saw a group of Hammer Bros. standing not too far away throwing their weapons at her. Roaring angrily, Tae leaped in their direction, and they fled when they saw her. She landed with such a force that a crater was created and the ground shook a bit, much to the horror of the Hammer Bros., and this was enough to get them running as far as they could.

All the while, Sakura, Ai, Junko, and Yuugiri watched in awe at their companions beating up the enemies present. The way they see it, there was no need for the four of them to get involved at all. "They really are enjoying this," commented Yuugiri.

"Really makes us look pointless..." said Ai.

"We won't know until we try and do something ourselves!" Sakura told her companions.

"I still don't know how I feel about this..." said Junko nervously. "I don't really want to hurt anyone..."

 **BGM Ends**

While they were saying this, the last of the enemies in the courtyard were taken out. Mario turned to the zombies and told then to press forward. Walking up to Mario, Saki said with a delightful look, "Man! That was fun! This is the best workout I've ever had!"

"Good-a to know you're holding up by yourself well!" Mario told her. "Don't get-a too reckless, though. Things will only become harder up-a ahead!"

"Bring it! It'll only be more fun for me!" said Saki while punching her palm.

As the zombies joined together, Junko looked at the all the fallen enemies lying all over the courtyard. All of them were unconscious and badly beaten up. A few were still twitching, proving that they were still alive. Junko weren't sure if the ones that were completely motionless were still alive or not. Nevertheless, she felt for all them.

Mario went up to the door leading into the castle building and pushed it as hard as he could. It refused to budge at first, but with help from the zombies, the door was finally pushed open, thus allowing them to go inside.

Once inside, they were greeted with a large room that had statues and portraits of Bowser decorating the place. Due to the castle being mad out of stone blocks that were left unpainted, the place gave off an ancient and even sinister feeling.

Still, the place still off a regal vibe, as there were high quality pieces of furniture as the red carpet that covered the entirely of the floor and the golden chandeliers that hung from the ceiling.

"Got to give it to him... It's quite a nice place he's got here," commented Saki.

"He is a king, so I guess this makes sense," said Lily.

Looking around, Sakura asked, "Isn't it odd that there's no one here? I was expecting enemies to show up..."

"All I can say that they are probably waiting in ambush," Mario told her while looking around with caution. "Bowsa likes to set up lotsa traps in his castle, so you betta be careful."

Suddenly, something dropped down from the air and landed in front of them with a powerful thud. It was a brown turtle shell, and the turtle hiding inside it soon revealed himself. "You shall not pass!" said the brown turtle as he stomped the floor and flailed his arm around in an attempt to look intimidating.

"Boom Boom!" said Mario in surprise.

Suddenly, a puff of pink smoke appeared next to Boom Boom, and a pink turtle with a similar appearance to him appeared, holding a large shuriken in her hand. "And don't forget the cute me, Pom Pom!" she said.

Saki got into a fighting stance and asked Mario, "Who are they?"

"High-ranking members of Bowser's army and some of his main muscle forces," explained Mario, also getting into a fighting stance. "They're pretty tough, so watch out!"

 **BGM: Boom Boom (Super Mario 3D Land)**

Without saying anything else, Boom Boom ran towards them while flailing his arm like a madman. Mario was going to fight him, but Tae ran up ahead of him on all fours and barking like a dog, despite the plumber telling her to be careful.

With her mouth wide open, Tae pounced at Boom Boom, but the latter caught her by the face and then slammed her onto the floor forcefully before smashing her on the head with his fist over and over hard, so much that floor around her face cracked.

"Hey! Nobody hurts my friend and gets away with it!" said Saki angrily as she ran towards Boom Boom as the latter continued to pummel Tae. However, the mindless zombie let out a cry of anger as she forced herself back on her feet, much to Boom Boom's surprise, and swung her hand at him to knock him aside. Seeing this, Saki said, "Should've known..."

Pom Pom pulled back her oversized shuriken before hurling it at the zombies and Mario. They all jumped out of the way, and after landing from her jump, Yuugiri generated cold wind from her hand and created a set of three shurikens made of ice, which she threw at the female turtle all at once. Pom Pom jumped over it and all the way to the other side of the zombie before producing a new shuriken in a puff of pink smoke.

Ai produced a boomerang in her hand and threw it at Pom Pom, but the latter saw it coming and easily sliced it in two using her shuriken as a melee weapon, much to the zombie's surprise. Pom Pom was going to throw her weapon at her next when suddenly Sakura leaped past her at a fast speed, scratching her across the face while doing so. When Sakura came to a stop, she looked at her clawed paws and said, "Wow! I moved really fast just now!"

"Sakura! Watch out!" Ai shouted at her. The red-haired zombie looked up just in time to see Pom Pom throw her shuriken at her, so she bent back her body to such an unnatural angle that it went over her completely.

Pom Pom growled in frustration that she missed, and before she knew it, she was kicked in the side of her head by Lily, who launched himself at her with a dive kick after flying into the sky. "Diving Lily Kick!" he shouted as he performed that move.

Pom Pom was sent crashing into the wall, and shortly after that, a trail of ice moved along the floor in her direction, freezing her starting from the feet and up her body until only her head was left unfrozen. Needless to say, Pom Pom was horrified by this and unable to move from her spot, no matter how hard she struggled.

Most of the eyes turned to the source of the ice and saw that it stemmed from Yuugiri. She had her right foot stuck out and planted firmly against the floor, and that foot was partially covered in ice, which then created a frozen trail that led to Pom Pom, freezing the turtle. Even though it looked like her foot was frozen to the floor, Yuugiri was still able to remove it with ease, the ice breaking apart when she did so.

In awe, Sakura said, "Yuugiri! That... That was awesome! You really did that just now?!"

"I've never seen anyone using da ice flowa like-a that before!" commented Mario.

"I'm honestly surprised by this myself too!" said Yuugiri, looking somewhat proud of her accomplishment.

Meanwhile, Saki and Tae were still locked in combat against Boom Boom. Saki punched him over and over with fiery fists, and occasionally, she would move out of the way for Tae to tackle him with her iron hard body and even bite him. Boom Boom was a durable person, however, and despite taking all those hits, he continued to remain on his feet.

Annoyed at constantly getting hit, the turtle spread out his arms and began spinning in circles at a fast speed while moving in their direction. Tae pounced at him again, only to get knocked aside by his spinning attack. Saki charged up her fist with her before punching the air hard to unleash a stream of fire at him. However, the fire was deflected by Boom Boom's spinning attack. The blonde zombie leaped out of the way when Boom Boom moved in her direction. Turning to him, she saw that he had stopped spinning and become dizzy because of such an action.

"Not very wise of you to use that, aren't you?" said Saki as she charged up her fist with her again. "Too late to regret that now!" She punched the air to release a stream of fire at him again. As if the approaching stream of fire was solid, Boom Boom was struck by it and pushed across the place until he hit a wall, so hard that cracks appeared on it.

The turtle was still conscious and groaning in pain, and before he knew it, Tae pounced at him and tackled him hard in the body. The mindless zombie then grabbed his head and slammed it against the wall over and over nonstop brutally, so much that some of her companions were horrified by such brutality.

"Tae! Stop it already! He's already unconscious!" Sakura shouted as she ran up to Tae and grabbed her from behind to stop her. Tae continued to growl at Boom Boom, who had already passed out from getting hit in the back of the head one too many times. There was even a crater on the wall behind him because of the slamming.

 **BGM Ends**

Mario looked at both villains. Pom Pom was conscious but helplessly frozen, which was enough to consider her harmless. Boom Boom looked like he wasn't going to recover anytime soon. "Well, I think that's that," said the plumber. "Looks like you girls are getting a hang of eet! Good-a job!"

"Yeah! We're that awesome!" said Saki proudly.

"You were awesome just now, Yuugiri sis!" Lily said to Yuugiri.

"You did great as well, Lady Lily!" Yuugiri told her with a smile.

Producing a boomerang in her hand and looking at it, Ai said with a hint of jealousy, "Compared to them, I feel like I got the short end of the stick... I can't really think of anything to do with these other than throwing them around..."

"I'm sure it'll come in handy," said Junko as she came up to her.

Shifting her eyes to the shiny zombie, Ai said, "And you didn't do anything at all..."

Blushing, Junko replied, "I... Um... Like I said, I'm not into violence, and I don't know what to do either..."

"Don't worry; I'm sure we'll get out chance to shine!" Sakura said to them.

* * *

The entire battle was seen by Bowser from his throne room through the flat screen before him. There was a security camera in that room that captured everything. "Those girls are good!" commented Kamek in surprise.

"Or Boom Boom and Pom Pom are just useless!" said Bowser in frustration. "Argh! I didn't expect things to turn out like this! If only the Koopalings are here now! They would've been able to make things easier for me! When are they coming back?!"

"They only left two days ago, so I doubt they'll come back so soon," Kamek reminded him.

Bowser growled in frustration as he took out a remote and pressed a button on it while pointing it at the screen. It changed to a different scenery showing another part of the castle, and the Elite Trio were seen there. "You three! They're likely heading to where you are now!" Bowser told the three subordinates. "Do whatever you can to take them down!"

"Don't worry, your higness!" Private Goomp told him. "We've rallied the army and prepared our weapons! Mario and his friends won't be able to get through us!"

"You better not mess up!" Bowser angrily said to them.

Just then, Bowser Jr. came running into the room. "Hey papa! Mario is here, right?" he asked his father. "If so, I want a piece of him too!"

"You'll get your turn, Junior," Bowser told him.

"I can't wait to use my new toy against him!" said Bowser Jr., sounding enthusiastic. "Heehee! He's going to get blown away literally when he gets a taste of it! I'm gonna go get it ready first!" He then rushed out of the room as fast as he came in.

After watching his son leave, Bowser reclined on his throne and said to the screen, which was showing Mario and his group again. "Don't get too cocky, Mario! Just because you have friends this time around doesn't mean it's going to be any easier! None of you will make it through this alive!" he angrily said.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Considering that Saki and Tae are the most action happy ones in the official series, it's no surprise that I gave them the most screen time. Still, all of Franchouchou will get a chance to do something, so please look forward to it!


	21. The Elite Trio

**Chapter 21  
The Elite Trio**

* * *

After defeating Boom Boom and Pom Pom, Mario and Franchouchou continued making their way through the castle, battling Bowser's minions whenever they showed up.

Despite being outnumbered vastly, the good guys were able to overcome their enemies with ease. Mario, Saki, and Tae had the least issue fighting their enemies due to their powerful fighting skills. Junko, on the other hand, avoided getting into conflicts and opted to let her companions deal with everything instead, her reason being that she doesn't like committing acts of violence.

Noticing this, Saki said to her, "C'mon, Junko! Don't just stand there! You're wasting the power-up Mario gave you! I thought you said you're going to help in whatever way you can?"

"I... I don't know what to do..." Junko nervously replied while fidgeting her fingers against each other. "You all seem to be doing a perfectly fine job without me..."

"Don't just stand there! Find someone to beat up!" Saki told her, sounding frustrated. "Look at Sakura! Even she's doing something and enjoying it!" She pointed at Sakura, who was scratching the face of a screaming Koopa Troopa over and over.

"Whoa! A walking wall!" said Lily out loud all of a sudden. In response, Saki turned to see a Whomp walking in their direction.

A grin appeared on the blonde zombies face as she headed towards the newcomer. "Heheh! Fresh meat!"

Junko continued to watch nervously at her companions beating up the various minions present. Just then, a Fang swooped down from the ceiling, ready to bite her. However, the bat minion was knocked out of the air when Ai threw a boomerang at it. Junko didn't realize this until the Fang was hit by the boomerang, and she jumped away in shock.

Ai caught the boomerang when it returned to her, and she asked Junko, "Are you all right?"

"I'm... I'm all right... Thanks!" Junko told her.

"Watch yourself! We can't always look after each other's back in situations like this!" said Ai before she produced another boomerang in her other hand to throw at some approaching Goombas.

Junko looked around and saw that everyone was giving it his or her best to beat up the minions.

Mario was jumping around and stomping the enemies and occasionally punched and kicked them.

Saki was having a field day beating the lights out of her enemies with fists and feet of fire, not to mentioning unleashing flamethrowers to burn her opponents alive.

Sakura was moving around swiftly and even climbing up walls to pounce onto enemies and slash them with her claws.

Tae took advantage of her hardened and heavier body to ram into her enemies with a tremendous force.

Lily had lots of fun turning himself into a human tornado, or zombie tornado, to catch enemies and give them a wild spin before sending them in every direction possible.

Yuugiri created ice constructs in the form of sharp objects and threw them with superb accuracy at her enemies.

Ai created endless amounts of boomerangs and threw them with precise accuracy at her opponents, and the unpredictable movements of her projectiles made them all the more dangerous. The shields on her arms and legs were used by her in defensive manners as well.

"Everyone's fighting so hard, yet I'm standing here, doing nothing, even being protected by them..." Junko said in her mind. Looking at her hands and creating golden and silver sparkles on the palms, she wondered if she should contribute something, but at the same time, she felt uneasy about hurting other people.

"Phew... That's da last of them..." said Mario while wiping his forehead. The room was filled with the bodies of minions lying all over the place, some of them still showing signs of life, while some was likely dead.

Stretching her arms into the air, Saki said with a satisfied look on her face, "Best workout ever!" As if agreeing her, Tae raised her arms into the air and let out a cheerful-sounding cry.

"Lily can't believe she didn't get dizzy at all from spinning nonstop for several seconds!" said Lily happily. "This power is neat!"

"Did you see the way I ran up the walls and jump off them onto my enemies? Wow! I was so awesome!" Sakura said to Ai excitedly.

"No time to celebrate," Mario said to them. "We still have to keep on going! Follow me!"

"All right! Who wants to die next?" said Saki enthusiastically as she followed Mario alongside her companions.

They ran down the hall and arrived at another room, and a large one at that. There at the other end were the Elite Trio, surrounded by a large number of Goombas and Paratroopas. There was also a large cannon behind them.

"You've come at last, Mario!" Private Goomp said to him. "We've expecting you!"

"This is as far as you go!" Corporal Paraplonk said to them.

"We'll be stopping you here!" added Sergeant Guy.

The good guys got into defensive stances when they saw that new enemies have appeared. "Anything we have to know about them, assuming you know them?" Ai asked Mario.

"They're the Elite Trio, high-ranking guards of Bowser," explained Mario. "They may not look like it, but they can be quite troublesome. What they lack in power they make up with strategy."

"You may have new allies this time, Mario," Private Goomp said to the plumber, "but we still have the number advantage, not to mention strategy on our side! You won't be winning this time!"

"Well then, bring it! Like we're afraid of you!" said Saki with confidence while punching her palm and lighting both hands on fire at the same.

 **BGM: Never Let Up! (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team)**

"Goombas! Run in circles around them!" Goomp said to his army of Goombas. The latter did as he said and rushed towards the good guys before forming a large circle around them and running nonstop.

"What... What are they doing?!" asked Junko nervously while looking around.

"Typical strategy for disorienting your enemies! I know this tactic from my days battling against rival biker gangs!" said Saki while looking around. "Pay attention to your surroundings and focus on the ones that are closing in on you! Don't let them moving around lower your guard!"

One of the Goombas then charged out of the circle and in their direction. Seeing this, Saki let up her fist to ready to attack it, but she was interrupted when a Paratroopa swooped down from above and hit her in the back of the head hard. This allowed the Goomba to run up to her and headbutt her in the face hard before rushing back to the circle of Goombas. Saki looked up angrily and saw that the air was filled with Paratroopas flying all over the place. "The heck?!'

"We've got them from both above and below!" said Corporal Paraplonk. "They'll never be able to concentrate facing opponents from both levels! Paratroopas! Use the hit and run tactic!"

"Goombas! Continue you assault!" Goomp said to the Goombas. "The Paratroopas will help distract them for you go in for the kill!"

Under the command of their superiors, the Paratroopas swooped down from the air at a fast speed and struck Mario and the zombies hard in the head before flying back into the air to avoid getting caught. "Ow! Stop it!" cried Sakura as she held her hands over her head for protection. She tried grabbing one of the Paratroopas after it hit her, but he was too fast to be caught.

Ai held up the shield on her arm for protection while holding a boomerang in the other hand. When a Paratroopa struck the shield, she pulled it back fast before trying to hit him with the boomerang as if it was a melee weapon, but the flying turtle moved out of the way fast. Before she knew it, she was rammed in the back by a jumping headbutt from a Goomba and pinned onto the floor, and the Goomba jumped on her over and over hard. "Get off me! she shouted as she rolled over to get him off, and he rushed back to the others at the side.

"Darn it! Stay still!" shouted Saki angrily as she hurled fireballs into the air to hit the Paratroopas, but they managed to avoid them all. As she was doing so, Goombas closed in on her from the sides and jumped at the same time to ram her in the body from all directions. Frustrated, Saki let out a cry of anger as she stomped the floor while spreading her hands to the side to release a fiery shockwave, blowing away and burning the Goombas who were attacking her.

She then angrily turned to Goomp and punched in his direction to send forth a stream of fire. However, Sergeant Guy got in front of him and waved his wand at the floor to generate a wall of water to douse the fiery attack, much to Saki's surprise.

"You want to fight in the air? Lily will give it to you, then!" Lily angrily said to the Paratroopas before taking flight using his propeller hat. He was going to generate a tornado with his spinning, but was interrupted when a Paratroopa rammed into him from behind. "Yeow!" More Paratroopas kept on ramming into him, not giving him the chance to do anything at all.

Yuugiri was throwing ice shurikens at the running Goombas when she noticed Lily in trouble up in the air. "Lady Lily!" she cried out in concern. Forming more ice shurikens in her hands, she got ready to throw them when suddenly she was rammed in the back by a Goomba and fell on her front. "Ah!"

Some Goombas then used this opportunity jump on her over and over and also kick her. Without getting back up first, Yuugiri pressed her hand hard against the floor and caused the area around herself to freeze over, and the Goombas that were on the floor ended up getting frozen to it, much to their surprise. The Goombas jumping on her back stopped doing so, as they were surprised by this as well.

Yuuguri angrily got back up and shoot away the Goombas on top of her before delivering a powerful slap into one to send him shooting across the room and into a wall so hard that cracks appeared on it. Ignoring the Goomba frozen to the floor around herself, Yuugiri formed two ice knives before throwing them into the air, hitting two Paratroopas who were about to hit Lily.

Though this might not look like much, this sudden occurrence was enough to surprise some of the Paratroopas, just enough for Lily to recover from getting hit nonstop. "My turn!" he shouted. "Milky Way Cyclone!" With one leg sticking out, he spun as hard as he could once, and just like that, he created a ring made of wind that spread out with such a force that almost all the Paratroopas were blown away.

Looking up, Saki said, "Good going, Lily!"

Seeing this, Goomp told the Goombas to pull back, and Paraplonk also told the Paratroopas to do the same. When the army returned to their superiors, Mario turned to them and said while in a fighting stance, "All right-a! Da game eez over!"

"It's not over until you drop dead!" said Sergeant Guy as he raised his wand into the air. It released a green aura that covered the entirety of their side, healing any wounds they received from the fight. "Now that we're back to full health, I'd like to see you take on us again! You can't keep up your stamina forever, while we can as long as I keep on healing them!"

"Right! It's a battle until you all drop from exhaustion!" Goomp said to the good guys.

"Sorry to break it to you, but we're zombies, so we won't get exhausted!" Saki said to him.

"We'll see about that! Goombas, gather together and form a box to charge into them!" Goomp told the Goombas.

The Goombas did as he said and began stacking on top of each other and also standing behind each other until they formed the shape of a cube. All of then then ran in sync towards the good guys. Saki lit up her fist and readied to unleash an attack, but Tae let out a cry of anger as she ran ahead on all fours to attack first.

Thanks to having a body made of metal, the mindless zombie was able to "shatter" the Goomba "cube" with ease and continue heading towards the Elite Trio. Acting quick, Sergeant Guy waved his wand at her and fired a blue beam that when struck, caused her to be encased in a block of ice in a blink of an eye.

"Tae!" gasped Sakura.

"Paratroopas! Huddle together to form a ceiling and then crush them!" Paraplonk told the Paratroopas. The winged turtles did as he said and got close to each other to form a "ceiling" before withdrawing into their shells.

While in that formation, they flew above the good guys before falling down all at the same time like a crusher. Fortunately, the good guys acted fast and got out of the way in time. The Paratroopas slammed onto the floor so hard that the room actually shook a bit.

They rose back into the air and moved around in sync while still in their shells, looking for another opportunity to crush the good guys, and they headed for Junko, who was alone. She looked up in horror as the "ceiling of shells" readied to come down onto her.

"JUNKO!" Sakura cried out to her in shock.

Nobody had time to rush up to Junko to help her, and it almost seemed like the latter was doomed. The white-haired zombie screamed as she raised her hand towards the incoming "crusher," and in doing so unintentionally released a ball of golden fire. When the golden fireball struck the Paratroopas, it exploded in a manner comparable to a firework, and the winged turtles were sent flying all over the place and badly burned as well.

The others were surprised at what they saw. Junko was surprised at what she did and looked at her hand. "Did I really just do that...?!" she wondered.

"Junko sis! That was a powerful move you used just now!" Lily said to her excitedly.

"If used effectively, da Golden Flower can be very powerful!" explained Mario.

The Elite Trio was surprised by what happened just now, and Paraploink was especially unhappy about it. "My minions! How dare she?!" he angrily said.

"That's the power of the Golden Flower!" pointed out Sergeant Guy. "That's no good... We better do something about her first..."

"You bet I will! I'm going to avenge my men!" said Paraplonk before flying at Junko at a fast speed.

The others were just commenting about what Junko did and urged her to use it again when the Paratroopa suddenly got behind in the blink of an eye and, grabbing by her the shoulders, carried her into the air. "Wha?! What are you doing?!" she cried while flailing her legs in panic.

"This is going to hurt, but you deserve it!" the Paratroopa said to her as he flew close to the ceiling.

"Let go of me! I'm scared of heights!" she cried while struggling hard. All of a sudden, her entire body gave off a bright flash that blinded everyone in the room. Paraplonk cried in shock as he let go of her as a result, and Junko fell to the floor with a thud, though thanks to being a zombie, she didn't feel pain.

In an act of anger, she looked up and pointed both her hands at Paraplonk, who was still trying to regain his vision from the blinding flash earlier, and fired golden and silver fireballs at him. The two projectiles collided into the Paratroopa and resulted in a bright firework-like explosion that blasted him out of the sky and all the way back to his comrades.

"Corporal Paraplonk!" Sergeant Guy said in shock while looking at the seemingly unconscious and burned up Paratroopa. He was going to use his wand to heal him when suddenly a boomerang thrown by Ai struck his hand and disarmed him. The wand flew to the back of the room.

Goomp then noticed that the block of ice Tae was frozen in was shaking, and suddenly, it shattered into pieces as the mindless zombie somehow burst her way out and cried out loud in anger. Seeing Goomp, she angrily lunged at him, but he avoided her by jumping into the air. Flipping himself upside-down, Goomp fell onto Tae, hitting her in the back with a powerful headbutt that pressed her against the floor.

"Don't underestimate the hardness of my head!" Goomp told her as he flipped right side up. "I've trained myself to master the arts of head bonking! I can even bend steels if I..." Before he could finish speaking, Tae shot back up while crying in anger, causing him to be hurled across the air. "Whoa!"

He happened to fly in Mario's direction, and the plumber winded up a punch before socking him in the face to send him shooting across the room and hitting a wall.

Seeing that he might be the only one left, Sergeant Guy angrily said to the good guys, "It's not over yet! See this cannon? I haven't even used it yet, and now you've convinced me to use it! You're going to regret it!" He then turned around and called out loud for the cannon to be loaded. The door at the back of the room opened, and some Shy Guys rushed in, carrying with them a Banzai Bill that they loaded into the back of the cannon.

The good guys got into defensive stance to get ready for the cannon to be fired. "The size of that thing is definitely going to create a huge explosion, right?" asked Ai nervously.

"Not enough to take out da castle, but still pretty big anyway," replied Mario. "Just don't get-a hit by eet."

They then noticed Junko stepping forward. "Junko, what are you doing?" Sakura asked her.

"You're right. I shouldn't be sitting back and doing nothing," she said with a look of determination. "Since I'm granted this power, which is likely the strongest among all of yours, I should make use of it! I may not like violence, but there is no other choice now!"

"Fire!" shouted Sergeant Guy. One of the Shy Guys pressed a button on the cannon, and the Banzai Bill was fired.

However, right before that Shy Guy pressed the button, Junko pointed her hands at the cannon and fired a large fireball that was golden on one half and silver on the other half. The Banzai Bill only just came out of the cannon when it collided with the dual-colored fireball, thus resulting in a large explosion that obliterated the whole thing and everything around it.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The cannon was blown into pieces, while Sergeant Guy and his army were sent flying all over the room, crashing into walls and falling onto the floor unconsciously.

 **BGM Ends**

The good guys were in awe at what happened, even Junko herself. "Wow...! That was awesome, Junko!" Saki said to her.

Junko looked at her hands and said, "This is the power... I got...?!"

Mario walked up to her and said, "Da Golden Flowa eez one of da most powerful power-ups eva. You should be happy that-a I gave eet to you!"

"I'm sure we can have an easily victory with your help!" Sakura said to Junko while patting her shoulder.

"You're so awesome, Sister Junko!" Lily said to her.

Everyone continued to praise Junko, which made her embarrassed but happy at the same time. Also, anyone on the enemies' side who was still conscious hurriedly ran out of the room, realizing that they had lost the battle.

All the while, Bowser watched the whole thing unfold in frustration from his throne room. It was captured on camera. "Why am I not surprised...?" he grumbled.

"Mario has gotten himself quite some allies this time around..." said Kamek in a worried tone.

"Looks like I'll have to do everything myself," said Bowser.

"You do realize that your son is preparing his weapon even as we speak, right?" Kamek said to him. "I only hope that he doesn't cause too much damage to the castle when he engages them..."

"If Junior can't do it, then I'll have to do it myself," said Bowser. "In fact, I think I should get prepared already. You better prepare yourself, Mario! The same goes you girls, whoever you are!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED


	22. Heavy Metal Madness

**Chapter 22  
Heavy Metal Madness**

* * *

Mario and Franchouchou continued their way through the castle, and somehow, they ended up outside, but somewhere on top of the castle.

Looking down the railing of the castle wall they were on, Lily said, "Didn't realize we came so high up already..."

Noticing pools of lava in certain parts of the courtyard, Ai asked, "Does that guy have an obsession with lava or what? I don't think that's something you would want anywhere in your house..."

"You can say that-a," replied Mario. "He does live in a volcanic area afta all."

"Found you!" shouted someone. Everyone looked up and saw a group of Lakitu approaching them on flying clouds with smiley faces that they sat on. The one in lead wore sunglasses and rode a black cloud with an evil-looking face.

"Oh boy, theez eez going to be trouble..." grumbled Mario, remembering how annoying it was dealing with this species.

"Under Lord Bowser's command, you're gonna get your faces full of Spiny Eggs!" said that Lakitu, Lakithunder, while holding up a Spiny Egg. "Get it while it's hot!" He then hurled it at them. They got out of the way, and when the Spiny Egg touched the floor, it instantly became a Spiny.

Looking around, the Spiny angrily charged at Mario. The plumber kicked it in the face and knocked it on its back before picking it up without hurting himself on its spikes and then hurling it off the wall they were on top of.

The other Lakitu then attacked, throwing Spiny Eggs at them nonstop. The good guys held their arms over their heads while running down the wall to get indoors fast, but some of the Lakitus planted several Spinies in front of the entrance to the interior to block their path forward.

"Get out of the way!" said Saki angrily as she stepped forward and unleashed a pair of flamethrowers from her hands to burn up the Spinies. The spiked turtles screamed in agony while running around, some of them jumping off the railing in the midst of their panic. She then turned to the Lakitu and did the same thing while saying, "Your turn, jerks!"

Some of them got out of the way, while some got burned and fell of their clouds screaming. Lakithunder got above the good guys, and then his black cloud emitted electricity before dropping a lightning bolt onto them. Mario knew what was happening and managed to warn them to jump out of the way in time. The lightning bolt struck the floor and left behind a small, smoking crater.

"You can't escape the speed of lightning forever! Get shocked and burnt to crisps!" he said in a mocking manner. As he looked at the good guys, he noticed that Ai looked the most scared, as she was hugging Sakura tightly, and tears even appeared to be running down her eyes. "Is that reaction the fear of lightning I'm seeing? Hoho! It will be fun torturing you with it!"

"You better not scare my friend! You'll pay for it!" said Saki as she prepared to use fire again, but was smacked in the side of the head by a Spiny Egg thrown by another Lakitu so hard that she got decapitated. "Hey!"

Lakithunder then dropped lightning bolts nonstop while approaching the good guys, forcing them to move back. They looked back and saw a small army of Spinies standing there, preventing their way backwards. As Ai saw the lightning bolts coming down continuously, more and more fear filled her mind as she grabbed Sakura even more tightly, and the latter kept on trying to comfort her.

Yuugiri froze the floor in the direction of the Spinies, turning them into ice. Tae then hurled herself at the frozen Spinies. Some of them got shattered, while some of them remained in one piece but flattened by Tae, as her metal body was harder than their spikes and shells. She then grabbed one of the Spinies and hurled it at Lakithunder, who ducked to avoid it. "Miss me!" he taunted.

Under his command, the Lakitus continued to hurl Spiny Eggs at them nonstop. "Enough of this!" shouted Saki angrily as she put her head back on. She shot fireballs at Lakithunder and the Lakitus, and while some of them got hit, some of them were able to avoid with fast speed, especially Lakithunder.

Junko raised her hands into the air and fired a golden fireball that exploded like a firework, and the smaller fireballs that were released from the larger explosion scattered everywhere, blowing away all the Lakitus. The bright light also blinded them. Lakithunder was not only able to avoid the attack, his sunglasses also protected him from the bright light. "Nice trick, but this is as far as you go!" he said while taking out a Spiny Egg to throw at her.

Suddenly, Lily appeared in front of him without a word and kicked him across the face hard, so much that he flew off his cloud and towards the courtyard below. "YAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The cloud, as if having its own sentience, flew after him at a fast speed to catch him.

"And don't come back, you meanie!" Lily angrily said to him.

Seeing that their enemies were all gone and the path forward was clear, Mario said, "Good-a job, everyone! I neva liked Lakitus and their Spinies... Anyway, let's-a go."

"You're not going anywhere!" said a childish voice. Everyone turned to see something raising from below, and their eyes widened in shock from seeing it.

It was a large robot built to resemble Bowser. The body consists of only an upper torso, and below it are jet engines constantly emitting flames to keep it afloat. Spiked shoulder pads decorate the part of the arms connecting to the body, and in front of said pads are printed red insignia of Bowser's face, which was also seen printed on various things related to him. The mouth of the robot is partially open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The eyes are yellow, glowing and pupil-less, thus thus giving them a sinister appearance.

"A giant robot?!" said Sakura in shock.

The Mohawk flipped up, revealing a cockpit inside that Bowser Jr. was currently in. Standing up from his seat, Bowser Jr. said to the good guys, "Heehee! How'd you like my Mega Mecha Bowser? I've made this to take you down, Mario!"

"You made that yourself?!" asked Lily, surprise that a child like him could make such a thing.

"Don't underestimate my genius mind!" Bowser Jr. said to him. "I got permission from dad to use this thing! He won't even need to get up and take on you himself! Get ready to meet your maker, Mario, and also your female friends!" With that, he sat back down, and the cockpit closed up.

 **BGM: Enter Bowser Jr.! (Super Mario Galaxy)**

The Mega Mecha Bowser brought up its fist before slamming it down on the good guys. They hurriedly ran ahead to avoid getting crushed by it and into the castle interior before them. The fist struck the floor so hard that a portion of it shattered.

They thought they would be safer inside, only to be proven wrong when the wall before them burst apart, and the robot Bowser was seen out there. "You can run but you can't hide!" said Bowser Jr., whose voice was broadcasted from the robot. The mouth then opened to breathe fire into the hole created, but they got out of the way again.

"How are we going to take down something like that!? 'asked Ai.

The robot's giant fist punched through the wall before them, and then the wall was torn apart when the robot swung its hand at it. A good section of that castle was destroyed as a result, thus leaving the good guys with no place to hide unless they keep on pressing ahead. "I told you that you can run but you can't hide!" Bowser Jr. said to them.

"You're wrecking your own castle, do you realize that?!" Mario angrily said to him. "Your fatha won't be happy!"

"That's a small price to pay! We can always rebuild it!" replied Bowser Jr. "You should be more concerned about your life instead!"

Tae let out a roar of anger before jumping high into the air and towards the robot, and Sakura cried out to her in concern. Tae was falling towards the robot's head with her mouth wide open and her arms pointing at it, only to be swatted back onto the floor by the robot's large hand. The robot then slammed its fist onto Tae from above over and over until that part of the floor was destroyed and she was sent to the lower floor.

"TAE!" some of her companions cried out in shock when they saw this.

"How dare you?!" said Saki angrily before turning to the robot to unleash a pair of flamethrowers that combined into a larger one by the time they reached the robot. However, the flames seemingly did nothing to it.

"Haha! Fireproof metal laughs at your feeble attempt burning overheating this!" taunted Bowser Jr.

"I'll handle this!" said Junko as she stepped forward and fired a large fireball made of golden and silver fire. The projectile created a sparkling explosion when it collided with the robot and was actually powerful enough to push it back a few meters. However, there was no visible damage done to it.

"That won't work either!" said Bowser Jr., much to Junko's surprise. "How about I show you my firepower?" The robot pointed its fists at them, and then cannons appeared from the top of its wrists to shoot fireballs at them. They ran around to avoid.

"This is out of our league!" cried Ai.

"Just keep-a running first!" said Mario.

"We have to help Tae too!" said Sakura, looking back at the hole the mindless zombie fell into. The latter suddenly jumped back out of it and cried loudly. "Tae! You're all right!"

Still wanting a piece of the robot, Tae turned to it and roared in anger. "You want more, don't you? Papa said you're a zombie, and you know how wse deal with zombies! With fire!" said Bowser Jr. before shooting fireballs from the robot's wrist gun at her. Tae jumped over the fireballs and landed onto the hand, and then she grabbed the wrist gun and, with a powerful yank, tore it off the arm, much to everyone's surprise, especially the young turtle. "WHAT?!"

Tae threw the wrist gun at the robot's head, though it simply bounced off it harmlessly. Bowser Jr. angrily shook the robot's arm to get the zombie off, but she held on tightly. Growling angrily, Tae leaped onto the robot and grabbed onto one of its horns to hold on, and then she slammed her other hand against the head as hard as she could. Even though her fists were currently made of steel, she was still unable to make dents onto the robot's super hard exterior. "Haha! You can try and hit it as hard as you can, but you won't bend it!" taunted Bowser Jr.

Despite this, Tae kept on attacking it. She made her way next to the Mohawk and, remembering that it previously opened to reveal its controller, tried to forcefully open it and even slammed her fists against it. Frustrated and even worried at the progress she might make, Bowser Jr. reached the robot's hand over to Tae, grabbed her, and hurled her back to the others.

"Tae! Are you all right?" Sakura asked her while helping her up.

"Don't think you can mess with my toy and get away with it alive!" said Bowser Jr. angrily as he pointed the other wrist gun at them and shot fireballs. Ai got in front of them and held up her arms to block the fireballs with her shield. Even though she was able to block the projectiles, their momentum was still enough to make her fly back.

"I told you not to mess with my friends!" Saki angrily said before attacking with flamethrowers again. Yuugiri also helped by creating and throwing ice knives. However, all those attacks did nothing against the robot, and its rider taunted their uselessness in response. "Darn it! How do we take down that thing?!"

"Time to use theez, then!" said Mario as he pulled out the turtle doll from his helmet. He crushed it in his hands, and brown dust surrounded him as he body gave off white light. When it died down, he was seen wearing a black turtle shell on his back and a similarly-colored helmet on his head.

"What's this power-up?" asked Lily, looking enthusiastic.

"Da Hammer Suit!" said Mario as he produced a pair of hammers in both his hands, and then he hurled them at the robot, striking them in the head. However, they bounced off it harmlessly.

"Ha! What were they supposed to do?" laughed Bowser. Jr. "I'll show you how you use a hammer... without actually using it!" He raised the robot's fist and slammed it down like a hammer, and they avoided it again.

Mario produced more hammers to throw nonstop at the robot, striking it in various parts of the body, but no visible damage was done, which only made the young turtle laugh all the more. When the robot swung its hand at Mario, he jumped and landed onto it, just behind the remaining wrist gun. Mario produced a large hammer and raised it over his head before slamming it onto said gun to destroy it. "Hey you! How dare you?!" said Bowser Jr. angrily as he shook the arm to get Mario off.

Mario put the large hammer onto the floor before creating two smaller hammers that he threw at the robot's eye with precise accuracy, striking them and shattering them. From inside, the computer screen that allowed Bowser Jr. to see outside turned dark, as the eyes were what allowed him to see in the first place. "HEY YOU!" he angrily shouted. "Now I can't see!"

Left with no choice, Bowser Jr. raised the Mohawk to expose himself, all the while moving away from them to get to a safer distance. Standing up from his seat, he angrily said while shaking his fist at them, "How dare you do this, Mario?! You're going to pay for this with your own eyes!"

"Bring eet!" Mario fearlessly said while picking back up the larger hammer.

"I still have more options for taking you down!" said Bowser Jr. The spikes on the back of the robot detached itself and revealed themselves to be missiles, which turned around to face the good guys before flying at them.

The zombies screamed as they ran to avoid the missiles, which exploded on impact. Mario avoided a couple of them before swinging his hammer at one of them to send it flying back to the robot, hitting it in the chest and exploding. The robot flew back a bit, and Bowser Jr. was shaken by it.

Spikes regrew on the robot's back and then took off at them again. Mario avoided some and knocked away some, but this time, they didn't fly back to Bowser Jr. When the second wave of missiles was gone, Mario ran and jumped out of the castle towards the robot with his hammer held over his head to ready to slam onto Bowser Jr.

The robot moved out of harm's away, just enough to prevent Mario from landing onto it. The plumber ended up falling down. The turtle looked down and laughed. "Haha! Happy landing!"

However, Mario flew back into the air behind the robot, courtesy of Lily carrying him from behind using the help of his Propeller Suit. "Thanks for da catch!" Mario said to Lily.

"Go get him!" said Lily before swinging Mario at Bowser Jr., who just realized what was happening and turned around to see the plumber falling towards him. He was too late to react and received a hammer strike to his head.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

 **BGM Ends**

While the turtle was dazed from the hit, Mario got into the cockpit and used a smaller hammer to smash the controller until it was short-circuiting and smoking. This caused the engine underneath the robot to die out, and then the whole thing began falling. Lily caught Mario and carried him back to the castle.

Mega Mecha Bowser fell into a pool of lava underneath, and though the latter wasn't big enough for the robot to fit into, it was still enough for a portion of it to take a dip, which was enough to badly damage it. Bowser Jr. woke up in time to jump out of the cockpit. "NOOOOOOOOO! MY MASTERPIECE!" he cried as he held his hands over his head while looking at the ruined robot in despair. He then looked up at the others, who were looking down at him. "You'll pay for this! If I can't beat you, then Papa definitely will!"

"Shut up and accept your defeat!" Saki angrily shouted at him.

Turning to Mario, Sakura said to him, "Wow! That was an incredible performance just now!"

"That-a wuz nothing, really," said Mario humbly.

Suddenly, Lakithunder appeared in the air with a look of anger on his face and his black cloud emitting electricity. "You may have beaten our prince, but you won't get away with this unpunished!" he angrily said to them.

"You again?!" said Lily in surprise.

His cloud unleashed lightning to zap the floor underneath himself, creating a smoking crater. Ai saw this and jumped back in shock and continued to tremble violently. "You're all going to be executed!" he said as he slowly approached them, and then he unleashed another lightning bolt onto the floor.

Seeing that Ai was scared, Sakura angrily said to him, "Stop caring our friend! She's afraid of lightning!"

"Then all the more reason for me to use it!" said Lakithunder while producing lightning nonstop, so much that place was being lit up. The voltage even seemed to be increasing every second. "Haha! Scared? Why not touch it?" He then moved in their direction while continuously letting loose the lightning bolt, so they ran.

Mario turned to throw a hammer at him, but he swiftly dodged it before throwing a Spiny Egg at him, but he sent it flying with another hammer.

"Stop it already!" shouted Saki as she shot a fireball at Lakithunder. He dodged it before aiming the bolt at her, zapping her and blasting her backwards.

"Did I tell you I can aim it wherever I want to as well?" said Lakithunder in a taunting manner. He then turned to Ai, who was backed against the wall and trembling in fear. "Scared of lightning right? Then I'll give you the biggest shock, then!"

"Stop it already!" shouted Ai in fear and anger as she threw a boomerang at him, but he moved his head to the side to avoid it.

"Haha! Missed!" he laughed, and he moved his head aside the second time to avoid it when it came flying back. "Knew that was gonna happ..." Only to be hit in the head a couple of seconds afterwards... In fact, he fell off his cloud as a result. "Ow!"

Two boomerangs flew back to Ai, and she caught them. Smirking, she said, "I actually threw two boomerangs, both of them stacked together to give the illusion of only one. One flew back earlier than the other, and you fell for it!"

Lakithunder sat up while growling angrily, and then he was grabbed in the head by Saki, who dragged him towards the edge of the castle. "Hey! What are you doing?! Let go?!" he cried. Saki's hand then heated up, burning his head. "YEOW! HOT!"

"And don't come back!" shouted the blonde zombie before hurling him off the castle and towards the courtyard below. The cloud was going to go after him, but acting fast, Sakura jumped at the cloud and somehow eliminated it with a swing of her claws.

Lakithunder kept screaming until he hit the grass of the courtyard below with a thud.

Ai sighed with relief that her cause of her fear was gone. Junko went up to her and asked in concern, "Are you all right?"

"I'm all right... I really have to get over this fear sooner or later..." said the bandaged zombie.

"What you did was smart, though!" Mario said to her. "Anyway, eez anyone tired?"

"Nah, we're fine," said Saki. "Remember we can't get tired. We have infinite stamina!"

"Then let's-a keep going," suggested Mario. "Da sooner we end-a theez, da sooner we can return to celebrate!"

"By the way, the rider of the mechanical contraption earlier is Bowser's son, is he not?" Yuugiri asked Mario. "Does that mean Bowser is engaged? If so, why does he still show interest in Peach? Unless his wife is no longer with him, then this is an act of adultery."

Mario shrugged. "I neva knew he haz a wife. His son Junior popped out of nowhere one day, and Bowsa claims he eez his son by blood."

"With a face that ugly, I wouldn't be surprised if his wife ran away or died from shock..." said Lily. "I'm even surprised he got hooked up in the first place..."

With Bowser Jr. and Lakithunder dealt with, the group pressed on to get to Bowser himself.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED


	23. The Road to Bowser

**Chapter 23**  
 **The Road to Bowser**

* * *

Mario and Franchouchou continued making their way through the castle to get to Bowser's throne, all the while battling his minions.

As they were making their way through a large room, they suddenly heard what sounded like a large number of people running at once. They turned around to see a large mob of what appeared to be large-bodied turtles dressed as football players running towards them. "What are those?!" asked Junko in shock.

"Chargin' Chucks!" said Mario in surprise.

 **BGM: Big Bang! (Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam)**

With the large number of Chargin' Chucks approaching them, Mario suggested that they run, as they were powerful enough to charge through concrete walls. Tae, however, roared fiercely before charging at those turtles. "Tae! No!" Sakura cried out to her.

The metal, mindless zombie thought she could knock down the at least one of the Chucks, but instead, she received a powerful shoulder bash and was sent flying back to her companions. Saki then stepped forward with her fists on fire. "You want to die? I'll gladly grant you all!" she angrily said before before unleashing a large flamethrower at them.

An entire row of Chargin' Chucks were engulfed by the flames and screamed in agony, but the ones that did not get burned ran to the sides and surrounded the good guys. Each of the Chucks then charged at them without warnings.

Mario jumped up when one of the Chucks came running into him and stomped him on the helmet. The Chuck fell forward but got back up again to throw his fist at Mario, but the latter dodged it and then smashed a hammer into his face. Another Chuck rammed into the plumber from behind and knocked him to the floor afterwards.

Sakura was hit by a Chargin' Chuck and knocked on her back, and then he jumped towards her with the intention of flattening her with a body slam. The zombie cried in shock before rolling to the side in the nick of time to avoid being flattened. When the Chuck got back up, Sakura angrily slashed his face over and over nonstop. "Take this! Take this! Take this!" she angrily said as she did so.

Ai threw a boomerang at a Chuck, aiming for his head, but it bounced off his helmet. The next thing she knew, she was rammed into a wall by the turtle. The bandaged zombie hurriedly produced another boomerang, but before she could throw it, the Chuck caught the hand holding the weapon and forcefully yanked off her limb, much to her horror. "MY ARM!" she gasped.

The Chuck grabbed her by the neck and lifted her into the air, and using her remaining hand, Ai tried to pry his fingers off her. Even with enhanced strength, she was nothing compared to the Chuck's superior strength.

The Chuck's helmet was suddenly grabbed from behind by Yuugiri, who then froze it. The coldness of the helmet hugging the Chuck's head caused him to let go of Ai, and while he was in panic regarding what happened, Yuugiri slashed him in the throat with an ice knife. The Chuck cried in pain before falling motionlessly onto the floor.

Ai looked at the seemingly lifeless on the floor with a look of horror on the face before looking up at Yuugiri and thanking her. The courtesan smile as she returned her arm to her. "I believe this is yours?"

In order to escape the chaos, Lily took off into the air. Looking down at all the Chucks running around, he taunted, "Ha! You can't catch me!" Suddenly, a football was kicked into the air by a chuck, striking him in the head so hard that the latter went flying off the body, which fell to the floor, but the head remained flying in the air thanks to the propeller helmet.

While the body was lying flat on the floor, a couple of Chargin' Chucks ran to it and began stomping it over and over with such a force that Lily actually felt pain. "Ow! Yeow! Stop it!" he angrily shouted. His head then swooped down and rammed into the Chucks to get them off his body. One of the Chucks caught his head, however, and flung it like a baseball into a wall.

"Leave shrimpy alone!" Saki angrily shouted as she ran to the Chucks who were attacking the young zombie's body and punched them away with her fiery fists. A baseball suddenly smacked her in the head hard from behind. Saki angrily picked up the ball afterwards and turned to the Chuck who threw it before throwing it back at him, but not before setting the ball on fire so that it was a like a fireball when it shot through the air. "DIE!"

Likely due to being set on fire, the baseball traveled at a much faster speed, so much that when the Chuck tried to catch it, he somehow got knocked into the air and fell flat on his face afterwards.

Saki then dragged Lily's headless body over to the head, which was down on the floor, and attached them back together. "You all right, shrimpy?" Saki asked him.

"Could be better..." he replied in pain.

Meanwhile, a Chargin' Chuck caught Junko by the shoulders from behind. The zombie was shocked at first, but then a look of anger appeared on her face as she shouted, "Let go of me!" Her body then let off bright golden light that lit up the room brightly, grabbing everyone's attention. The Chuck grabbing her also let go of her to shield his eyes from the bright light, and then Junko turned around to place her hand in front of his face. A burst of golden energy came out from her palm, blasting him away.

The other Chucks, after witnessing what she could do, saw her as a threat, so they decided to gang up on her. They charged at her from all sides. Trying to look as fearless as possible, Junko placed her hands together and formed golden sparkles in between them, and then she swung her arms sideways at a fast speed, firing golden sparkles all around herself. All the Chargin' Chucks were hit by them, and golden explosions ensue, causing them to be blown away.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

 **BGM Ends**

Her companions were in awe at what they saw, and Sakura said, "Wow! Junko! That was... spectacular!"

"How... How did you know how to do that...?" Ai asked her.

"I... I don't really know myself... I just decided to test around with what I can do, and that happened..." replied Junko. "I'm surprised myself too...!"

"Good to know that-a you're getting a hang of theez ability!" Mario said to him while holding a hammer in his hand. A Chargin' Chuck without a helmet was getting back up behind him, so he threw the hammer at his head, knocking him out. "All right, now that-a theez eez dealt with, let's-a keep on going!"

* * *

After a few more minutes of traversing the castle, they arrived at a long hallway with a set of red doors at the other end. "That's da throne room," said Mario. "Bowsa must-a be in there."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get him!" said Saki with enthusiasm.

"There are definitely traps on da way there, so be careful," Mario warned them.

They went down the hallway, wary of whatever could be thrown at them. A buzzsaw positioned horizontally suddenly came out of the wall behind them and sped towards them. Yuugiri was behind all the others, and when she saw the buzzsaw approaching, what could be described as maternal instinct kicked in, making her turn to Lily and push him onto the floor. The buzzsaw then sliced through her waist as fast as a heated knife going through a butter.

Because Lily was pushed onto the floor by the courtesan, the buzzsaw went over him. Tae was next in line to get cut, but thanks to her metal body, it did not happen. Sparks flew into the air as the buzzsaw tried cutting through the mindless zombie's metallic body. Tae let out an angry cry before slamming her fists onto the buzzsaw with such a force that it was removed from the wall and even broke apart.

"YUUGIRI!" the other zombies said in shock when they saw the courtesan's two halves lying on the floor.

Yuugiri had her eyes wide open in shock as she lied perfectly still on the floor, clearly scarred by what happened to her. Her companions and Mario gathered around her in panic, and Sakura said to her, "Yuugiri! Please be all right! Please don't die!"

"Say something! You can't go out like this! I won't allow you!" Saki said to her in panic.

Yuugiri blinked and then said, "I'm... I'm still alive...?"

The others were relieved to see that she could still speak. "Thanks goodness... I was so scared that we lost you..." said Junko in relief. She almost cried.

The zombies then pieced the two halves of her body together, but she continued lying on the floor to wait for the injury to heal before getting back up. "Can you move your legs?" Ai asked her.

Yuugiri raised her head high enough to see her legs and moved them. "Yes, I can move them," she said.

"Thanks goodness you're a zombie; otherwise, you're really a goner..." said Saki in relief.

"That-a sure came in handy, didn't eet?" said Mario, glad that nothing serious happened.

They watched as the two halves of Yuugiri fused together, and when there was no visible slit on her body, she slowly stood back up. "Looks like I have fully healed," she said.

"Let's hear it for our regeneration!" said Saki happily. "We really don't have to worry about dying again!"

"We should still be careful," Ai told her. "Just because we can't be killed so easily doesn't mean you should allow ourselves to be badly mutilated. You'll never know if we get so badly damaged that we can't fully heal!"

"That Bowser! How dare he set such a horrible trap?!" said Sakura angrily. "I'm really angry at him now! We should go and teach him a lesson as soon as possible!" Without waiting for the others, she rushed down the hallway, despite Mario telling her not to rush on ahead.

The ceiling opened, and a metal ball attached to a chain suddenly swung down, striking Sakura hard and sending her back down the hallway and past everyone. "SAKURA!" they gasped in horror as the red-haired zombie fell motionlessly onto the floor.

They ran up to her to see that she had a horrified look on her face. "Sakura! You idiot! You shouldn't have rushed headlong like that!" Saki said to her, both in anger and panic.

"Are you all right?" Ai asked her.

"I... I think my limbs are detached..." said Sakura, slowly recovering from her shock. Her companions felt her limbs and found that they were indeed detached from her body. As she was wearing a full body costume, it wasn't possible to tell that her limbs were detached, as they were inside the costume. They attached her limbs back together, and then she stood back up. "Sorry... I was so angry just now that I didn't think twice before rushing forward..."

"At-a least you're all right," Mario said to her. "I know you're angry at Bowsa, but you still have to be careful."

The group continued traveling down the hallway, and as they were closing in on the door, a pair of cannons rose from the floor, and Bullet Bills were fired from them. Acting fast, Mario produced a large hammer and, with a swing of it, knocked both bullets into the wall at the side, creating an explosion.

More Bullet Bills were fired, but Mario kept on knocking them away. However, as the bullets poured out nonstop, there was no end to this at all. Seeing this, Yuugiri stepped forward after Mario knocked away another pair of Bullet Bills and stomped the floor, making the path up ahead freeze over. When the ice came in contact with the cannons, they froze as well, and as a result, they stopped firing.

"Smart-a thinking!" Mario said to the courtesan. "Thanks!"

"Glad to be of help!" Yuugiri said to him.

With the cannons dealt with, they pressed on ahead and went up to the door. Mario pushed the door open, and they all went inside and were greeted with a large room with a throne at the back end. However, there was nobody in the room at all. The only thing noteworthy was a see-through box with exclamation marks printed on all sides of it. The top was open, and inside the box was a ball of white light.

The group approached the box, and Junko asked, "What's this?"

"Eet'z a warp-a box," replied Mario. "It's basically da same thing as warp-a pipes. Eet warps you to anotha box connected to eet, wherever eet eez."

"Where's Bowser anyway? Shouldn't he be here?" asked Saki, looking around for signs of the Koopa King.

Suddenly, a deep, monstrous voice was heard echoing through the room. "Bwahaha! Congratulations on making it this far!"

"That's Bowsa's voice!" pointed out Mario.

"However, you have yet to reach your goal! As you can see, I am not in the throne room at the moment. Rather, I am in the arena I have prepared for our fated battle! If you think you have what it takes to come after me, then use the warp box to come over to where I am, assuming you can survive the traps on the way leading to me first!" said the voice of Bowser. With that, the "broadcast" ended.

Looking at the warp box before them, Mario said, "We'll have to jump into theez eef we want to find Bowsa."

"It has to be a trap!" said Lily.

"Trap-a or not, he eez definitely at the otha end of theez, waiting to confront-a uz," said Mario. He then looked at the zombies. "Are you sure you want-a to do theez? I'm afraid Bowsa may be outta your league. If you do not-a wish to come along, eet'z all right-a."

"I'm not afraid of him!" said Saki. "I'm more than ready to give him a piece of my mind! We've come this far already, so we're not backing off."

"Me too! I really want to give him a piece of my mind!" said Sakura with a look of anger. "I'm going with you!"

Tae raised her arms into the air while crying out loud as if saying that she wanted to fight Bowser as well.

All the others agreed that they were willing to go with Mario to face Bowser. Seeing their determination, Mario smiled and said, "Good-a to know that you are all in theez with me! Okey dokey, let's-a go face Bowsa!" With that, the plumber jumped into the opening on top of the box, and he disappeared when he touched the ball of light inside.

The zombies were surprised to see this, and then they also jumped into it and disappeared.

* * *

 **BGM: Bowser's Lava Lair (Super Mario Galaxy 2)**

Mario and the zombies reemerged from another warp box. When they landed, they looked around and were surprised by their surroundings. They were in a large cavernous area with a what was basically an ocean of lava down below the platform they were standing on. The brightness and heat of the lava gave the place an orange glow.

Said platform was somehow floating in the air, and there were more up ahead, some of them stationary and some moving. "What is this place?!" asked Ai.

Looking up at the ceiling to see stalactites hanging down, Lily said, "I think we're underground..."

Mario looked as far ahead he could and saw something there. "I think-a Bowsa eez over there. C'mon, let's-a go, but be careful!"

The zombies nodded before following Mario. They had to jump from platform to platform and avoid falling off, as it was obvious that falling into the lava below spelled instant doom for them. Not even being a zombie would save them from it.

Fortunately for them, the jumps they had to make were small and simple ones, so there wasn't actually any danger of falling off. Thanks to their enhance capabilities, they were able to jump as well as Mario.

They also encountered some of Bowser's minions, such as Goombas, Hammer Bros, Dry Bones, and Fire Piranhas.

The Goombas were pushovers. Mario easily made quick work out of them by stomping them flat, and even the zombies didn't take any effort to send them flying off the platforms and into the lava below. Junko looked down the platform to watch a couple of Goombas scream as they fell towards the lava, and even before they touched the molten rock, their bodies were set on fire. The sight of this terrified the zombie and even made her feel bad for them.

The Fire Piranhas were a small problem as well, mainly due to the fact they were stationary. Though they shot fireballs from their mouths, the projectiles were easy to avoid. With a skillful throw of her boomerang, Ai was able to cut off the stems of three Fire Piranhas. Detached from their stems, the plants cried in pain while writhing until they withered.

Dry Bones proved to be something of an annoyance due to the fact they piece themselves back together after being broken apart. Fortunately, Yuugiri found a way to counter this by freezing them entirely, and Mario and Tae would smash them into pieces in such a way that they couldn't reform.

Hammer Bros were more of a nuisance due to them throwing hammers nonstop. However, Sakura was able to make use of her fast cat speed to avoid the hammers and rush up to them and slash their faces over and over. This interruption allowed the others to close in on the hammer-throwing turtles and beat them up.

After fighting their way through the minions and jumping from platform to platform, they eventually arrived at a massive, circular platform. On one side of the platform was a throne, and Bowser was seated on it. Next to him was a cage hanging from the ceiling via a chain, and Peach was inside it, holding the bars and watching the good guys hopping onto the platform.

Kamek was floating on his broom next to the Koopa King.

 **BGM Ends**

"Mario!" the princess cried out to the plumber.

Mario and Franchouchou ran up to Bowser, and the former said to him, "Bowsa! We finally found-a you!"

"So you've finally came!" said Bowser, looking rather glad.

Punching her palm, Saki angrily said to him, "You better get ready, because we're going to beat you up real good!"

"You will pay for everything you did!" Sakura angrily said to him while pointing at him.

"Ha! Big talk! Do you think you can prove your worth?" Bowser asked them. "And who are you girls anyway? Seriously, I still have no idea!"

"We're Franchouchou, and we're zombies whose job is to be idols and bring happiness to everyone!" replied Sakura. "In the name of love, dreams, hope, and all that is good, we're going to smite down the evil that is you and bring peace back to the world!" As she said this, she struck some poses as if she was some sort of flashy superhero.

Her companions stared at her with somewhat freaked out expressions. "Was that necessary...?" Ai asked her.

Sakura's face turned red slightly as she scratched the back of her head. "Heheh... Always wanted to find a chance to do after watching magical girl TV shows..."

"Lily can think of better poses than that..." commented an unimpressed Lily.

"Still have no idea who you are, but regardless of whether or not you're zombies, the outcome will still be the same!" said Bowser as he sat up, and then he jumped onto the floor and began approaching them. "You lot are all going down!"

Mario, Saki, Tae, and Yuugiri showed no signs of fear as the evil turtle approached, but the other four displayed slight fear, including Sakura, even though she was looking so eager and courageous earlier.

"Lord Bowser has me on his side! There is no way you can win this time! Keheheheheh!" laughed Kamek.

"We'll see about-a that!" said Mario as he got into a fighting stance.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Finally, the battle against Bowser is up! This is old news for Mario, but for Franchouchou, this is something new to them. Will they be able to survive this, or is this truly out of their league? Find out soon!


	24. The Showdown

There's a ZLS event coming this Sunday that may reveal huge news for the series's future. Let's pray for the announcement of the second season!

 **Chapter 24  
The Showdown**

* * *

Producing a large hammer in his hand, Mario glared at Bowser as the latter took steps in his direction. Behind the plumber, Franchouchou had different looks on their faces as the turtle approached them.

Saki had her fists on fire and looked eager to start a fight. Tae was hunchbacked while growling like a wild beast. Yuugiri had a serious look on her face, though she was still nervous to some extent.

Sakura, Ai, Junko, and Lily, on the other hand, looked the most nervous, even scared. Getting into fights was something they had never experienced before, especially against a large, monstrous turtle. It was at this moment that they started having second thoughts about wanting to tag along in the first place.

 **BGM: King Bowser - Medley (Super Mario Galaxy)**

"Showtime!" said Bowser loudly before taking a deep breath to breath a stream of fire at them. They all ran out of the way, and then Saki ran towards Bowser and jumped at him with a fiery fist pulled back. She let out a cry as she threw a punch into the side of the turtle's face, hitting it with enough force to actually make him feel pain. Bowser was going to swing his claws at her afterwards, but the zombie released bursts of fires from her palms to both hit him and propel herself back to a safe distance.

While Bowser was in the midst of recovering from that attack, Tae pounced onto his arm and bite hard into it. Bowser cried in pain while shaking his arm up and down to get her off, but she held on tightly. Mario then ran up to Bowser to swing the hammer into the side of his face.

Bowser almost fell over from the hit, but only ended up taking several steps to the side before recovering. He continued to shake his arm until Tae was finally thrown away. Immediately after landing, however, she pounced at him again, but the turtle punched her away in the face this time.

Mario ran at Bowser and swung down his hammer at his head while jumping, but Bowser was able to knock him aside with a swing of his hand. Ice then traveled along the floor and towards his feet, courtesy of Yuugiri, and froze him to the floor. Bowser angrily glared at the courtesan before struggling to pull his feet off of the floor.

Seeing this as a chance, Sakura jumped towards his face and slashed it multiple times. Bowser cried in pain as he held his hands over his face, and then he glared at Sakura to swing down his fist onto her. Acting quick, Sakura transformed herself into a golden statue, which was hard enough to tank the blow. In fact, Bowser actually hurt his fist from hitting her new form.

"Eat this and die!" shouted Saki as she unleashed a pair of flamethrowers at Bowser, burning him all over. Bowser cried in pain while shielding himself using his arms, and when the fire melted off the ice that was holding him in place, he hurriedly got out of the way.

"You call that fire? I'll show you what real fire is like!" Bowser angrily said to her before breathing fire at her. In response, fire shot out form Saki's feet to propel her into the air, out of the fire's reach. She was going to fall towards Bowser to slam down a fiery fist onto his head, only to blasted out of the air by a magical energy blast fired by Kamek.

"Don't forget that I'm here helping my king!" said the Magikoopa. Waving his wand in the air, he created colorful dust that coated himself, and then in a puff of smoke, five clones of him appeared around him, much to the surprise of the good guys.

The six Kamek then flew around the air while firing magical projectiles at the floor, trying to hit the good guys, so they ran for their lives to avoid getting hit.

As she was running, Ai produced boomerang and threw it at one of the Kamek. It struck him, only for him to disappear in a puff of smoke. It wasn't the real one. As she was surprise by this, she was blasted in the back by an energy blast and blown onto the floor.

The Kamek was shot her was going to fire another shot, only to be destroyed by a golden energy blast fired by Junko. It was another fake.

Another Kamek was constantly shooting at Sakura, who jumped left and right to avoid him. "Hold still, you annoying cat!" Kamek angrily said to her. He was suddenly struck in the back of the head by a dive kick from Lily and fell to the floor. When this happened, the remaining clones disappeared in puff of smokes. He got up while groaning in pain, only to be slashed in the face by Sakura multiple times afterwards.

"Take this! Take this! Take this!" she angrily said while doing so.

Meanwhile, Bowser and Mario were fighting each other. Mario would constantly try to get close to Bowser to hit him with his hammer, but the turtle would block the hits with his arm and tried to punch back, only for the plumber to jump out of harm's reach. Mario then produced and threw smaller hammers, but Bowser defended against them by withdrawing into his shell.

After withdrawing into his shell, he began spinning at a fast speed and then somehow slid along the floor, heading for Mario. The latter got out of the way, and then Bowser began moving in random directions, thus putting everyone on the floor in danger. In fact, Kamek ended up being a victim. "YOUR HIGHNESS!" he cried as he got sent flying into the air from getting hit.

Seeing that Bowser was heading for her, Yuugiri hurriedly created an ice wall for defense and then moved back. However, Bowser crashed through it with no effort, much to her surprise. She was bracing herself for impact when Lily suddenly carried her by her shoulders into the air. "Thank you, Lady Lily..." the courtesan said to him.

When Bowser headed in her direction, Junko reached out her arms and concentrated on firing the largest energy blast she could. She fired a golden and a silver energy ball at the approaching shell and actually succeeded int sending Bowser flying and spinning into the air.

The shell landed upside-down with a thud, and then Bowser pulled back out his head and limbs. He growled in pain while getting back up on his feet. "Why you?!" he angrily said to a scared Junko, and then he jumped unexpectedly high into the air and towards her.

The zombie screamed as she ran out of the way. When Bowser landed where she originally was, the arena shook and tilted a bit, just enough to throw everyone to his or her feet. Tae jumped at Bowser again, this time onto his head. She held onto his horns and bit hard into his head, and the turtle cried in pain while trying to pull her off.

While he was doing so, Mario and Saki ran up to him and struck him in front of his body with a hammer and a fiery fist respectively. Bowser flew back and landed on his shell once again, and then Tae got off his head to climb onto his body to slam down her fists onto it over and over.

Bowser growled in anger as he turned on his side to get her off before standing back up. Tae angrily roared before pouncing at him again, but he slammed down his hand onto her back and pressed her against the floor. "You accursed zombie!" he angrily said to her. He was then pelted in the side of the head by fireballs and hammers thrown Saki and Mario respectively. Bowser angrily picked up Tae and threw her at them, and due to her heavy weight, she knocked them back and pinned them onto the floor.

"Kamek!" shouted Bowser loudly, and then Kamek appeared next to him on his broom and asked what he wanted. "Give me some of your magic! Anything will do!"

"Right away, your evilness!" said Kamek as he waved his wand over Bowser to coat him with colorful dust. Bowser glowed in various colors for a few seconds, and then he floated into the air.

 **BGM: Bowser - Medley (Super Mario Galaxy 2)**

"Haha! Let's see how you take on a flying Koopa!" said the turtle with an evil smile. He pulled back his fist and then launched himself at the grounded Saki, Tae, and Mario. Those three managed to get up and out of the way in time before they were smashed by a meteor-like punch from Bowser that shook the arena a bit.

He floated back into the air and looked around at the shocked zombies. Mustering her courage, Ai produced boomerangs one after another to throw a seemingly endless amount of them at him. Bowser held up an arm in defense and easily shrugged them off, and then he performed the same move earlier to attack her.

Ai got out of the way to avoid the powerful punch which shook the arena again. Bowser was flying back up when Sakura leaped onto the side of his head and held onto one horn while using her free hand to claw him in the face as hard as she could. Bowser cried in pain as he reached for her, but with swift cat-like movements, she climbed to the other side of his head and repeated the same thing.

Bowser tried to get her off again, so she jumped above him before transforming into a statue to fall onto him with a powerful force that brought him quite a headache. Bowser cried in pain as he shook her off, and she changed back to run a safer distance from him.

As Bowser was recovering from the hit, he was blasted in the front by golden fireball shot by Junko and pushed back through the air. Lily attacked him next by spinning towards him while pointing his legs at him. "Drilling Shooting Star!" The young zombie kicked Bowser's body with a force strong enough to send him shooting back through the air and off the arena, but thanks to being able to fly at the moment, he was in no danger of falling at all.

"Your highness! The magic won't last forever, so you should stay above ground at all times in case it runs out while you're out there!" Kamek warned him.

"I can take them out before that happens!" replied Bowser angrily.

"Talk big, when you're the one who's getting beaten up by us!" Lily taunted him.

"You're celebrating too early, brat! You zombies should've stayed in your graves!" Bowser angrily said before flying at him at a fast speed with his fist pulled back. Lily got out of the way when he approached, though.

"Burn to ashes!" Saki shouted as she released a large stream of fire from her hand while directly underneath Bowser. Bowser cried in pain as the fire engulfed him all over the body.

He flew out of the fire in pain and was then shot by snowy projectiles fired by Yuugiri. Each shot left a spot on his body covered in a thin layer of ice. He was going to breath fire at the courtesan, but when he opened his mouth, she fired into his mouth, causing the interior to freeze over. Bowser choked on the ice and fell to the floor on his back once again.

Tae once again used this opportunity to jump onto Bowser's body, this time with a much stronger force. She landed with such a force that Bowser coughed out fire and melted the ice covering his mouth. He got up as she fell to the floor and glared at the feral zombie, who was growling at him.

Bowser said nothing but breathed fire at her, engulfing her in it. "TAE!" Sakura cried in shock when she saw this. When the fire disappeared, Tae was still standing there with her metallic body heated and glowing in orange.

She let out a cry before jumping at Bowser, who swung his arm at her. She grabbed onto his arm, however, and burned him with her heated body. Bowser cried in agony from the burn while shaking his arm like no tomorrow, but the zombie held on tightly while digging her heated teeth into his skin.

"Your majesty! Let me help you!" said Kamek as he readied to fire a magical blast at Tae, only to be interrupted by a boomerang Ai threw into his head. Lily then approached him with a fast speed and knocked him off his broom and onto the floor with a roundhouse kick.

While Bowser was still struggling to get Tae off his arm, Saki leaped at his head and kicked it hard with a leg full of fire with such a force that he was knocked onto the floor, and that was when Tae finally let go. The turtle angrily got back up and tried to fly, only to realize that he could no longer do so. "Already?!" he said in surprise, and then he remembered that Kamek's enhancement magic could also wear off if one received too much damage. "Argh!"

"Looks like you're outta juice!" Mario said to him.

"Don't get so cocky! I don't need any magical enhancements to beat you! My own powers are more than enough!" said Bowser angrily.

"I've heard too many people who talk big, only to fail in the end!" Saki said to him. "You're no different from the rival gangs I've faced when I was alive! They all talk about how they have numbers on their side, but guess what? It only took me and sometimes a a bit of help from one or two of my friends to beat up an entire group of more than ten people!"

"Then you clearly have't met me before! I am an entire army myself!" said Bowser angrily while churning fire in his mouth.

 **BGM: Adabana Necromany (Zombie Land Saga)**

Having said that, the turtle angrily ran towards the good guys. Mario and Saki let out war cries as they ran towards him together. Bowser was going to collide with them when he was interrupted by Tae pouncing onto him from the side and ramming her extra hard body against his head, and this gave Saki and Mario the opportunity give him an uppercut to the chin using their burning fists and hammer respectively.

Bowser flew back into the air and landed on his rear end this time. Just as he got back up, Sakura rushed up to him and slashed him across the face much harder than before, leaving behind a relatively deep gash that made him cry in intense pain.

Creating a larger boomerang than before, Ai threw it with two hands at him, striking him in the neck. Bowser fell to the floor while holding his hands over his neck, almost as if to check whether or not his head was still connected to his body. Lily dropped down from above, stomping him in the face hard before jumping off. As if that wasn't enough, Sakura leaped over his face and transformed into a statue before falling on top of him, smashing him.

Bowser cried out in anger as he shot back up. He jumped high into the air and landed with a powerful stomp that caused the arena to tilt and knock everyone to his or her feet, but they managed to hold on and not get tossed into the air, at least too high and far.

Bowser then breathed a large amount of fire in every direction. Yuugiri released a large amount of cold air at the stream of fire and managed to push it back. Both sides battled back and forth with their elemental attacks for several seconds, but soon, Bowser was beginning to prevail.

Rushing over to Yuugiri's side to help, Junko stretched forth her hands and attacked with a golden flamethrower that sparkled brightly, making it pleasing to the eye of onlookers. "Wow! It's so beautiful!" commented Sakura.

Yuugiri and Junko's combined attack was able to overcome Bowser's flame, and the turtle was force to close his mouth when their combo attack finally got to him and harmed him. He cried in pain as the combination of cold wind and golden fire pushed him back closer and closer to the edge of the arena.

When he was right in front of the edge, the attack stopped. Bowser opened his eyes just in time to see Mario running to him with his hammer pulled back. "So long, Bowsa!" said the plumber loudly before swinging it into the Koopa King.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

 **BGM Ends**

Bowser cried loudly as he sent flying off the arena at a fast speed until he hit the cavern wall at the back with a powerful thud, so much that cracks appeared on it. He then fell towards the lava below. The other looked down just in time to see him hit the lava, causing a burst of fire to appear, and then there was no sight of him afterwards.

"We... We defeated him...?" asked Junko in disbelief.

"Seems so," said Mario as a smile slowly appeared on his face.

Standing back up, Saki threw her arms into the air and exclaimed, "All right! We did it! We killed Bowser!"

"I can't believe we actually did it! I didn't actually think we could win!" said Sakura.

"This is the power of teamwork!" said Lily happily.

Mario then turned to the cage containing Peach and ran up to her. "Princess!"

"Mario! I was so worried about you all!" said the princess happily.

Mario produced a small hammer and hit the lock of the cage over and over until it was destroyed, thus allowing him to open the door. He helped Peach out and down from the cage, and the latter kissed him in the forehead as thanks. Some of the zombies blushed a bit when they saw this. "Ooooh! You got yourself a girl's kiss for saving her!" Lily said to a blushing Mario.

"Congratulations!" Yuugiri said to him with a smile while clapping her hands.

"Darn it! This wasn't supposed to happen!" said Kamek, who was back on his broom, angrily.

The others turned to look at him, and Saki said, "Oh yeah, totally forgot about you..."

"Your boss is dead! Give it up!" Ai said to him.

"You've underestimate Lord Bowser! Something like this won't kill him so easily!" Kamek said to them with a grin. "Whatever the case is, I should be getting out of here now, but not before I put an end to you first!" He then released colorful dust from his wand at the arena, making the whole thing glow with various colors. It then began shaking.

"What's happening?!" asked Junko in shock.

Kamek laughed as he used his wand to create a Warp Box, which he hurriedly flew into. The box didn't disappear, but Mario knew it wouldn't be long before that happens. Acting fast, he picked up Peach and threw her without a thought into the box, and she disappeared into it. He then ran to the box while telling the zombies to jump into it before it disappears and also before the whole place collapses.

He was able to escape into the box in time, but unfortunately for the zombies, the entire arena fell straight down before they could get to the box, and they screamed in terror as the box went out of their reach due to them descending at a fast speed.

The arena hit the lava, causing the latter to make a large splash. Realizing that the arena was beginning to sink, the zombies panicked and wondered what to do. Ai noticed that there was land on the side, so she told the others to get there fast.

Running as fast as they could, they got to the edge of the arena and leaped onto solid ground just before the latter sunk into the lava completely. "That... That was close...!" said Sakura in relief.

"What are we going to do now...?" asked a worried Junko.

Lily looked up to see the Warp Box, only to find that it was no longer there. "If that box was still there, then Lily could've carry everyone one by one into it..." he said.

"Hey, there's a passage over here," said Saki while pointing at a tunnel that led deeper into the area. They looked into it but weren't able to see what was on the other side. "You think we should go in here?"

"There's no other way for us to go, so we don't have a choice," said Yuugiri while observing the the place, only to find nothing but a sea of lava.

"Let's hope this passage leads to an exit, then," said Ai.

The zombies were left with no choice but to take the tunnel, and immediately after stepping into it, they heard something coming from behind. Looking back, they were shocked to see a skeletal hand reaching out of the lava and grabbing onto the ledge.

"What... What is that?!" asked Sakura in shock and fear.

The zombies watched in horror as a skeletal turtle with a red Mohawk and glowing, orange eyes climbed out of the lava. Its body was still heated by the temperature of the lava, thus giving it a glowing, red appearance that was slowly dying down.

"You zombies...!" it said in a monstrous voice that seemed to echo throughout the place. "LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME!"

That was when they realized who this skeleton was. "Bowser?!" they said in shock.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Did you think that was it? There's no way Bowser can be die so easily, if at all! Now the zombies will have to deal with Dry Bowser... without Mario! Will they be able to win without the plumber?

Please look forward to it!

Oh, and what do you think of the BGM choices? I felt like using ZLS's opening theme is a good way to conclude the fight. There's always something neat about main themes and opening themes playing during climatic battles, don't you think so?


	25. The Showdown Between Undeads

A guest reviewer somehow managed to post a review for the previous chapter not in this story, but in Justice of Two Earths. I tried to copy and paste it INto this story in order to make it look like he posted it here, but I accidentally posted it when I was still logged in, so it got posted under my username... I posted it a second time, this time making sure to log out first. Whoever you are, I don't know how you managed to make this seemingly impossible mistake, but please check carefully next time what story you're reviewing...

 **Chapter 25  
The Showdown Between Undeads**

* * *

Franchouchou could not believe what they were looking at. They had seen Bowser falling into the lava, and it shouldn't be possible for anyone to survive falling into it. Even they were sure that they would die if they fell into it, yet somehow, Bowser was standing in front of them, albeit in the form of a living skeleton, as his skin had been burned off by the lava.

"How is he still alive?!" asked Ai in shock.

"He's a living skeleton!" said Lily, stating the obvious.

"He's basically a zombie now!" said Saki.

Bowser, or rather, Dry Bowser, took steps towards them, stomping the ground hard, and said in an echoing voice, "Don't you think you can get away with this! I'm going to make you regret ever returning to the land of the living if it's the last thing I do!"

Mustering her courage, Saki said to him, "Ironic of you to be saying that, don't you? You basically died and returned to the land of the living as well! If it's a battle to see which type of undead is superior, then bring it!"

"YOU WILL KILL YOU ALL!" Dry Bowser shouted before roaring so loud that the sound wave alone was able to almost blow the zombies back as if it was wind.

 **BGM: Final Battle with Bowser (Super Mario Galaxy)**

"What... What do we do?!" asked a horrified Sakura.

"Kill him for real, that's what!" replied Saki before running towards Bowser with one fiery fist pulled back. Dry Bowser responded by breathing a stream of blue fire that engulfed her completely, and the other zombies pressed themselves against the walls to avoid getting hit by it. When the fire disappeared, Saki was seen covered partially in blue fire, which died down when she slapped her hands all over her body. "Okay, that's actually quite hot, but it won't work on me at the moment!"

Before she could do anything, Bowser ran up to her at an unexpectedly fast speed to throw a punch. She reacted in time and moved to the side before throwing a punch at his body. She punched with a force strong enough to break through his chest, and then she released fire from her hand while it was still inside his body to fill his interior with heat. Dry Bowser cried in pain as fire came out from every possible opening on his body. He pulled back from the blonde zombie, who smiled with confidence, thinking that she was doing a fine job taking on him.

The fire disappeared, and Dry Bowser acted as if nothing happened afterwards. In fact, the hole created on his chest healed itself in a matter of seconds. "Insolence!" said Dry Bowser angrily before breathing fire at her again. Saki crossed her arms in defense and took the blow directly. She tried to endure the blue fire, but found that it was getting hotter and hotter, to the point that she was starting to get pressured by it.

Not wanting to take the risk anymore, she rushed out of the fire and doused out the ones on her body as she rejoined the others. "You shouldn't get so careless! Who knows if he can actually burn you to ashes!" Ai angrily told her.

"Yeah, I should probably be more careful..." agreed the blonde zombie.

Dry Bowser then charged at them, stomping the ground hard with each step. Tae roared angrily as she pounced at him, only to receive a powerful punch straight to her body and sent shooting deeper into the passage. Dry Bowser breathed blue fire again, and the zombies hugged the wall and waited for it to end before running towards where Tae was. "What are we going to do?!" asked a scared Sakura.

"Combat in narrow place like this is not ideal, so I suggest we find a more suitable arena," suggested Yuugiri. She then looked back. "But we can try to hinder his progress first." Turning around to press her hands against the ground, she created an ice wall that blocked the passage entirely, a move that surprised the others, before continuing ahead.

However, the ice wall did nothing to stop Dry Bowser at all, as the skeletal turtle charged through it like it was made of paper. Junko turned around and fired golden energy balls at him, and it was successful in blowing him backwards. He got back up in a matter of seconds and continued as if nothing happened.

Yuugiri tried to give another shot in hindering him. She froze the floor in his direction, this time freezing his feet to the ground. She didn't stop there; she released a large amount of cold air at Dry Bowser to slowly encase his whole body in ice. Dry Bowser cried angrily as he tried to break himself out of the ice, but gradually, his whole body was frozen. "That should do it!" said the courtesan.

"Good going, Sister Yuugiri!" Lily said to her.

"We don't know how long it can hold him, so let's keep going!" suggested Yuugiri, and then they pressed on ahead.

They didn't go too far before the ice began cracking, and then Dry Bowser was able to break free again. "ENOUGH!" he angrily shouted.

The zombies finally emerged from the passage. Looking up, they found themselves at the bottom of what appears to be a canyon or valley, as the path on both sides stretched out endlessly, and the sky was visible above them. "So we are underground all along..." said Saki.

"Let's climb to the top fast!" suggested Ai. "The walls look rug enough for us to get a good gripping on, so..." She was interrupted by the sound of Dry Bowser roaring, and they turned back into the passage to see him catching up. "RUN!"

"You go on ahead! I will buy you time!" said Saki as she got into fighting stance, and Tae was next to her, ready to offer her support.

Thanks to enhanced abilities, the zombies didn't have too much hard time climbing the slope and wall. Lily had it the easiest due to his propeller suit allowing him to fly straight up, though he didn't fly to the top right away, as he wanted to travel at a pace similar to his companions.

Sakura also had it easy, as her cat suit allowed her to climb as good as a real cat. In fact, she was basically running up the slope and wall. Getting onto a ledge sticking out of the side along with Lily, Sakura looked down at Ai, Junko, and Yuugiri, who were doing their best to climb up, and called out to them, "Hurry!"

"It's easy for you to say when you're a cat!" Ai said to her in frustration.

Down below, Saki and Tae tried their best to buy their companions time by taking on Dry Bowser. Saki cried out constantly as she delivered fiery punches and kicks at Bowser, who blocked them with his arms held up in a manner similar to being defensive during a boxing match.

When Bowser threw a punch at her, she ducked underneath it and then unleashed an uppercut to his chin. Dry Bowser wasn't too bothered by it, however, and recovered almost immediately afterwards to slam down his fist onto her head, smashing her onto the ground. Bowser then stomped her so hard that she actually felt pain, but then Tae tossed herself onto his head and bit his skull hard.

Dry Bowser cried in pain while shaking his body until Tae flew off. At the same time, Saki released fire all over her body while crying out loud angrily, making Bowser let go of his foot from her. He was then rammed into the chest by Tae and pushed back onto the ground. Saki and Tae then stood side to side in fighting stances, ready to take on Bowser again as he got back up. "I can do this all day!" the blonde zombie said to him.

"You will not win! I wil tear you to pieces and burn you to ashes! You will never come back to life from that!" Dry Bowser angrily said to him.

"Funny, because I plan to do the same to you!" said Saki as she pulled back her fist to unleash a fiery attack. Suddenly, the fire disappeared, and she also noticed that her scars stopped glowing and her clothes returning to its original pattern. Looking all over her body in shock, she realized that the power-up had wore off. "Darn it! Not now!"

She then looked at Tae and saw cracks appearing all over her body, and suddenly, her metallic body shattered like an armor being broken, exposing her normal self underneath. Up above, the rest of the girls found themselves turning back to their normal selves after a puff of smoke. "Our power-ups wore off!" said Sakura in shock as she looked at her hands.

"Nooooo! And Lily was thinking of carrying you up there one by one!" cried Lily with his hands on his head in despair.

"At a time like this... This is the worst possible moment!" said Ai in disbelief while looking at her hands.

Junko noticed that she was the only one who hadn't lost her powers. "How come I still have mines?"

"Did you not obtain your power later than us?" Yuugiri reminded her. "That would make sense for you to not lose your power just yet."

Down below, Saki was seriously worried that she wouldn't stand a chance against Dry Bowser, but nevertheless, she continued to maintain a fearless look and her fighting posture. "Just because I don't have powers now doesn't mean I can't beat you!" she angrily said to him. Tae also growled angrily at Bowser, showing that she was still going to fight despite losing her powers.

"You're going to regret showing such a large amount of stupidity!" Dry Bowser said to her.

Suddenly, a ball of golden fire dropped onto him and exploded, making him flinch. Saki looked up and saw that Junko attacked him from a ledge. "Saki! Tae! You both run! I'm the only one who still have my powers, so I'll hold him back!" she called out to them.

"You're not a fighter! I can deal with him with Tae!" replied Saki. "You focus on escaping first!"

"No! I'm going to be the one to buy you time!" Junko shouted back. "Don't be so reckless, will you?! That's what got you killed in the first place! Do you want to die a second time?! Make the right choice and don't do anything reckless!"

Seeing that Junko was angry and serious about this, Saki said, "Fine! But you better not push yourself too!"

"You're not going anywhere!" said Bowser angrily, and then he was struck by golden fireballs fired by Junko again. "Gah!"

Saki began climbing up the slope, but then Tae suddenly picked her up and threw her into the air slightly to let her land onto her back. "What are you doing?!" Saki asked her in surprise.

Tae got down on all fours and ran up the slope and wall at a fast speed, and Saki held onto her back tightly. The other zombies watched in surprise as Tae sprinted up the slope like she was running on a flat surface, and she was able to get to the top in no time. "Wow! Tae's so fast!" exclaimed Sakura.

"I know she's always been the most physically skilled among us, but this is still unreal..." commented Ai in disbelief.

Saki got off Tae and said to her, "Man! That was unexpected! Thanks!" She then looked down the valley to see the others. "Think you can..." Before she could finish speaking, Tae rushed down the valley. "Yeah, I was going to ask you that..." She then noticed a large boulder next to herself.

Tae got onto the ledge Lily and Sakura were on and offered to carry them to the top. Sakura told Lily to go first, so the latter got onto Tae's back for the mindless zombie to carry her to the top.

Meanwhile, Junko continued to shoot golden fireballs at Bowser nonstop in hope of stalling him and even destroy him. Dry Bowser growled in frustration as he got hit constantly. When he had enough, he breathed a large stream of blue fire at her. Junko tossed herself to the side but managed to grab onto some rocks to avoid sliding back down, and then she tried to climb to a higher location.

"You're not going anywhere!" Dry Bowser angrily said before jumping unexpectedly high and towards her. He landed onto a ledge close to her, much to her horror, and readied to breathe fire at her, but was interrupted by a rock being thrown onto his head by Yuugiri and Ai, who were higher up.

"Get lost, you monster!" Ai angrily shouted as she picked up a a rock as large as her head and threw it at Bowser.

Bowser almost fell off from getting hit by the relatively large rock, and he was going to fight back, only to be interrupted by energy balls fired at Junko. The zombie then fired at the part of the slope he was clinging onto to destroy his footing. Dry Bowser slid down the rocks that were created by the destruction and crashed to the bottom.

"Lady Junko! Hurry!" Yuugiri shouted as Junko, who nodded before climbing up as fast as she could.

Tae came back down again, this time picking up Ai on her back to rush to the top, while the remaining two zombies tried to climb as far up as they could first. Below, Dry Bowser got back up and growled angrily before running up the slope. "GET BACK HERE!" he shouted.

Junko looked back and shot energy balls using one hand to slow him down. However, Dry Bowser leaped to the side before continuing to climb up at a fast speed until he was at the same level as her. He was going to move in her direction when she released bright golden light from her palm to blind him and stop him in his tracks, and then she shot him again with an energy ball to make him slide back down the second time.

Tae came back down again, this time to pick up Yuugiri. When the courtesan was at the top, she noticed her companions behind a large boulder, pushing it. "What are you doing?" she asked them.

"Trying to push it down onto Dry Bowser!" replied Saki while continuing to push. "If Bowser is below it, then we hope it'll flatten him!"

Below, Junko continued to climb up. Dry Bowser was back with a vengeance. Climbing after her from below at a fast speed, the skeletal turtle was able to catch up with her in a matter of seconds and grabbed her leg. "Gotcha!"

"Let go!" Junko desperately cried as she shook her leg, and then she fired energy balls from one hand into his face over and over. Despite getting hit nonstop, Dry Bowser continued to hold onto her leg, refusing to let go. Eventually, Dry Bowser was able to pull of her right leg, much to her horror.

Likely due to not thinking clearly at the moment, Dry Bowser flung the leg upwards, so high that it actually flew to the top. "That's Junko's leg!" pointed out Sakura.

With one leg missing entirely, climbing was now much harder than before, but Junko continued to climb as fast as she could. Unfortunately, Bowser slammed down his claws hand onto her body and pinned her in place. "You're finished!" he angrily.

"Let go of me!" cried Junko, who was on the verge of tears as she struggled to break free from his grasp. She let loose bright light all over her body, but despite being blinded by it, the Koopa King continued to keep his hold on her.

"That's not going to work again!" he said with his eyes closed until the light disappear. When he opened his eyes, he saw Tae falling onto him with her arms outstretched and mouth wide open. The mindless zombie fell onto his face, latching onto it and biting the snout hard. Dry Bowser desperately tried to shake her off, and as a result, lost his grip on Junko and even the slope, so he slid back down once again.

Tae got off Bowser before he went too far down and hurriedly picked up Junko on her back to rush to the top. There, she was given back her leg to reattach to her body.

Finally, all seven of them were at the top. "Quick! Let's push this down onto him!" Saki told the others, and then they pushed as hard as they could. Despite all seven of them giving their best, the boulder barely seemed to be moving.

Dry Bowser once again ran up the slope, filled with more rage than before. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" he shouted at the top of his voice before shooting a blue fireball at them.

The fireball struck the area just below the boulder, taking off a chunk of it. As a result, the boulder rolled down the slope and crashed into Dry Bowser before he could react.

 **BGM Ends**

The skeletal turtle tumbled down the slope yet again while constantly getting crushed against the surface by the boulder, his bones breaking apart and flying all over the place as a result, until they both hit the bottom.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The boulder then shattered into pieces and buried Dry Bowser, who by then was more or less just a skull and nothing else.

The zombies looked down from their spot at the rubble that served as Dry Bowser's "burial site," and Sakura asked, "Did... Did we do it...?"

They waited for several seconds, but nothing happened at all. "I think we did it..." said Saki as a smile formed on her face. "We definitely won!"

 **Victory Theme: You Got a Grand Star! (Super Mario Galaxy)**

Believing that they finally did it, the other zombies all stood up and threw their arms into the air. "Yes! We defeated Bowser and also escaped him! We did it!" exclaimed Lily while jumping up and down.

"I was so scared... I thought we were all going to die!" said Junko with relief as she placed her hands in front of her chest.

"Me too..." said Ai.

"It sure is a death-defying experience!" said Yuugiri.

"Girls!" shouted the voice of Mario all of a sudden. They turned around to see Mario and Peach running towards them, and further in the back was Bowser's Castle. "Found-a you at last! Are you all right?"

"Mario!" said Sakura happily. "Thanks goodness you're here!"

Mario ran up to them and said, "I forced Kamek to tell me your location, and he told-a me that da underground area we were in leads to theez place.

"Where's Bowser?" asked Peach.

"Ten feet under!" said Saki, pointing at the bottom of the valley, at the pile of rocks he was buried underneath.

Surprised, Mario said, "Looks likes you gotta him good! I didn't expect-a theez!"

"Can you believe that he came back from the lava as as a skeleton?!" Sakura asked him. "He was basically a zombie! Just without flesh..."

"That's-a not da first-a time," Mario told her. "Bowsa can somehow still live even after being reduced to bones, and even though you defeated him now, I'm afraid that-a theez won't-a be da last time you see him..."

"Are you telling me he's still alive somehow?!" asked Ai in shock.

Mario nodded. "Trust-a me; Bowsa haz more lives than a cat. I wouldn't be surprised eef he eez immortal. But either way, now that he's defeated for now, eet'z over! We can go back to da Mushroom Kingdom now!"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

I think I did the best I could, given how Franchouchou aren't supposed to be fighters and their series not being an action genre. Perhaps it could be better, but... what do you think?

I hope you enjoyed the final battle!


	26. Legendary Idols

**Chapter 26  
Legendary Idols**

* * *

"Look! They're back!" shouted a Toad standing at the entrance to Toad Town as he pointed at a group of people approaching from the distance. People gathered around him to take a look at who he was referring to and saw that Mario and his group were on their way back to town. Mario still had his hammer suit on, but Junko had already lost her Golden Flower powers.

The people cheered and clapped their hands for the group as they entered the town, and Mario and Peach waved happily at them.

"Hooray!"

"Mario did it again! He defeated Bowser and rescued the princess!"

"You're the best!"

The zombies were amazed at the attention Mario was receiving and felt glad for him. "People sure are praising you a lot!" said Junko.

"Of course! He's a hero for bringing the princess back safely!" Sakura reminded her.

"Thank you for your warm welcome, but you should congratulate these girls too!" Mario told the crowd. "They helped me greatly in rescuing Peach. In fact, they're da ones who gave Bowsa da finishing blow!"

Hearing this, the crowd turned their attention to the zombies.

"You really defeated Bowser by yourselves?"

"I can't believe it!"

"You zombies really are awesome!"

"Yeah! We're awesome!" said Saki proudly. She was clearly enjoying the attention she was receiving. "If you have anything that you need to deal with, just let me know!"

"We're happy to be of help!" Sakura happily said to the crowd and even shook their hands.

A Toad patted Tae in the shoulder and asked if she defeated Bowser, and the latter nodded in response. "Wow! You must be really strong!" said the Toad, to which Tae responded by lifting her arms into the air and letting out a cry in response, grabbing everyone's attention. "Yeah! That's the victory cry of a strong warrior! I can tell!"

Another Toad asked Junko, "You really did defeat Bowser? You don't look like someone who can do that! You must actually be very strong!"

"Uh... I... I have help from my friends...!" said Junko a bit nervously. It was clear she wasn't too comfortable being so close to many people.

As the crowd continued to praise them, Toadsworth came over with Romero and some soldiers. "Princess!" he said loudly. "Thanks goodness you're back safe and sound!"

"It's good to see you safe and sound too, Toadsworth!" Peach said to him. "I hope everything is fine while I'm gone."

"Your safety is more important than anything else, and everything is fine here!" Toadsworth told her.

Romero ran up to his owners and happily stood up against Sakura's legs and panted while wagging his tail. The zombie bent down to pick him up. "Romero! We miss you so much! Were you a good boy while we were gone?"

Toadsworth then approached Franchouchou and said to them, "You girls helped Master Mario, did you not? If so, then you have my thanks! I would never have imagined that zombies like you would be able to save your princess and kingdom! I was so wrong to judge you harshly when we first met! How can I ever thank you?"

"Don't fret it! It's no surprise you would think bad about us at first sight, considering the reputation of our kind," Ai told him.

"We are truly in your debt!" Toadsworth said to them. "If it weren't for you, Toad Town and even the entire kingdom would be in ruins due to Bowser hypnotizing us all! We would like to thank you on behalf of Mushroom Kingdom as a whole!"

The Toads thanked the zombies nonstop. Even Mario and Luigi, who was among the crowd, praised them and thanked them for lending a hand in saving Mushroom Kingdom.

It wasn't the first time Franchouchou received praises, as they got rounds of applause every time they performed for the public, but this time, it felt different. They were being applauded for doing something great and helpful to the society and not simply entertaining people.

They were being praised as heroes.

"You think this is the perfect time to announce our performance?" Ai whispered to Saki.

"Why not? I can't think of a better time than this!" replied the latter with a smirk. She then raised her hands and said out loud for all to hear, "Everyone! We thank you for your praises! We are glad to be of help in beating up Bowser, rescuing your kingdom, and saving the princess! However, our true strength doesn't lie in doing those, but being idols! Back in our home, we dance and sing for people to see and hear in order to make them happy!

"Therefore, I would like to take the opportunity to let you all know that we plan to hold a performance here in town tomorrow for you all to see! If you are interested, please come and check out our performance! I guarantee you won't be disappointed!"

When the crowd heard this, they raised their voices in unison and exclaimed that they wanted to see them perform.

"We're looking forward to eet!" Mario said to the zombies with a smile. "You have my support!"

"Thank you! We will do our best!" Sakura happily told him.

* * *

The next day, the theater was crowded with people. Word of Franchouchou performing here today spread throughout Toad Town, and many people wanted to see the zombies who help saved their town perform.

Mario, Luigi, Toadsworth, and Peach were seated up front, greatly anticipating the show, just like everyone else. "I wonda what sort-a performance they're going to do," said Luigi.

"They're pop idols, aren't they? We've seen those things on TV, so eet'z easy to imagine what they're going to perform," Mario told him.

"Either way, I'm looking forward to eet!" said Luigi. "I still find da idea of idols being zombies to be very absurd, though..."

"I'm sure we'll find-a out eef that eez da case soon!" said Mario with enthusiasm.

Eventually, the zombie idols appeared on stage, all of them with makeups and wearing the casual clothing they got since the day they arrived at the place.

The audience clapped their hands when they saw the idols, and after the latter positioned themselves, Saki, who was in the center, said out loud into her microphone, "Sorry to keep you waiting! We are Franchouchou, idols hailing from the Saga prefecture of Japan, which as some of you might know takes place in an alternate universe that we came here from! Today, we will show you the kind of performances we usually do back home! I hope you sit back and enjoy! The name of our first song is... **Mezame Returner**!"

Music began playing as the idols whipped out their dance moves, consisting upbeat movements and jumping. Sometimes they sang together, sometimes they took turns singing certain lines.

All the while, the audience watched and enjoyed the performance. Some of them began clapping their hands halfway through the performance, and some even brought glow sticks to wave around in the air. Some were filming the whole things using their smartphones and video cameras too.

"Nice music!" commented Mario.

"Great dance moves as well!" said Luigi.

After the performance was over, and the audience cheered for them happily and loudly. "Thank you for enjoying our show!" Sakura said to them. "This is only the beginning! We have a few more to show you, so please wait as we go change into new outfits first!"

With that, the idols rushed backstage, while the audience waited and talked among themselves about what they thought about the performance.

"What do you think, princess?" Toadsworth asked Peach.

"I like it a lot!" replied Peach. "They look very passionate and dedicated to this line of work!"

After a couple minutes of waiting, the idols returns on stage, this time wearing red buttoned-up shirts and white skirts.

Taking the center of the stage, Ai spoke into her microphone, "Thank your patience! Our next song is titled **Atsuku Nare**. Back in our world, Junko and I were the main singers of this song. I hope you appreciate this next performance as well!"

After getting into their positions, music began playing. This particular song sounded more serious than the previous one, and as such, the dance moves weren't as upbeat. Even so, it was a fast paced song that had the idols moving around often. While all of them, except Tae, who only danced, sang, Junko and Ai had the most lines, sometimes singing together and sometimes alone.

The audience enjoyed it just as much as the first one. They clapped their hands, waved around their glow sticks, and cheered loudly.

When the idols were done with this song as well, the audience went wild like before. "Thank you very much for your round of applause!" Junko happily said to the audiences. "We still have a couple more songs to show you. I hope you will once again have the patience to let us change into new outfits first!"

"We hope you will enjoy the next one as much as this one!" Ai said to them.

The audience clapped their hands as the idols exited the stage to get changed. After a few minutes of waiting and discussing among themselves about the show, the audience saw the idols returning on stage. This time, they were traditional school uniforms underneath red trench coats.

Taking the center of the stage, Saki said, "Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone! The next song is one I came up with! It is one that reminds me of my days as a biker before I became an idol, about how I wanted my biker gang to become the greatest in the country and even the whole world! I hope this next performance will fill you energy and make you strive for greatness! It is called... **Tokkou Dance**!"

The music began playing as the idols started dancing. Unlike the other two songs, there wasn't much moving around for this one. Instead, their movements mainly consisted of jumping up and down and swaying left and right. Despite this, the song was an upbeat one that made the audience want to get up and dance, which some actually did. Saki was more or the less the only person singing throughout the entirety of the song, though some of her companions occasionally sang certain lines alongside her.

Once finished, the audience reacted like they always did. Somewhere among the audience, the leader of the Paratroopa Trio, the group that provided Saki with the blue shell to fight Kent C. Koopa, stood up and said out loud, "If that ain't da best dance moves and singing, I don't know what is! Good moves, girls!"

Smiling happily, Saki said to the audience, "Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed everything so far! As much as I hate to say this, the next one will be our last performance for today. It's a new song we've been practicing for some time and was going to perform back in our world, which means this is actually the first time we're performing this in the public! You should all be honored to be the first people to witness this! Please wait while we go get changed!"

The idols left the stage again, and the audience once again talked among themselves about how much they were enjoying the show.

"Let's hope da last one eez equally good!" said Luigi with enthusiasm. "I love everything so far!"

"Me too!" said Mario with a nod.

The idols eventually returned. This time, their outfits consisted of buttoned-up shirts, trousers, and fedoras, all of which were red.

"And now we come to the last performance of the day!" said Saki while striking a pose and holding one hand on the brim of her fedora. "The last song is entitled... **Break Free**!"

No sooner after she said that, music began playing, and they began pulling off stylish dance moves. They then sang, sometimes together and sometimes taking turns.

 **Sakura/Saki/Ai  
** _Smash through the blocks that bar your way_  
 _No time for fear just let it all fall away (all fall away)_

 _Nobody believes in me and you, just look at the way they stare_  
 _So what if we live in a walled garden, as long as I've got you then I don't care_

 **All  
** _Kick off the wall and take the plunge_  
 _Tripping through 2 dimensions_  
 _Up on the moon we'll twirl and swoon_  
 _Just lead the way (and I'll follow you)_

 _I'll throw my hat in the ring, 'cause you're the one_  
 _A miracle in three dimensions_  
 _Follow the brick path straight to my heart_  
 _And we'll grab the flag together the fireworks are gonna start_

During this part, there was only singing, so the idols danced silently with large smiles on their faces. The audiences had equally large smiles on their faces as they clapped their hands. The singing then resumed.

 **Lily/Yuugiri** **/Junko  
** _Shake off the chains, you're running free_  
 _You'll be amazed at all that there is to see (there is to see)_

 _Together we're racing for the goal, and no one can stop us now_  
 _Maybe we don't know where we're going, but we're gonna get there somehow_

 **All  
** _Climb up the vine and land in the clouds_  
 _Maybe then we'll swap up for down_  
 _'cross the sea we're still you and me_  
 _I'll follow you (Just lead the way)_

 _You've got me over the moon, and that's no jest_  
 _We're miles above the rest_  
 _Look in your eyes and I know we'll be fine_  
 _So let's shoot for the stars and make this love really shine_

Again, there was no singing. The idols continued to pull off their dance moves, ranging from jumping up and down to moving around the stage in fashionably and stylish manners. By now, almost the entire audience was up on their legs and clapping their hands. The singing soon resumed.

 **All  
** _Nobody believes in me and you, just look at the way they stare_  
 _So what if we live in a walled garden, as long as I've got you then I don't care_

 _Kick off the wall and take the plunge_  
 _Tripping through 2 dimensions_  
 _Up on the moon we'll twirl and swoon_  
 _Just lead the way (and I'll follow you)_

 _I'll throw my hat in the ring, 'cause you're the one_  
 _A miracle in three dimensions_  
 _Follow the brick path straight to my heart_  
 _And we'll grab the flag together the fireworks are gonna start_

By the time they were done singing, the idols were gathered close to each other, each striking different poses.

The crowd then stood up while roaring with excitement and giving them a large round of applause.

"Bravo!"

"Encore!"

"That was awesome!"

"Splendid! Splendid!"

"Very good!" Mario called out to them while clapping his hands.

"I can't believe how great eet wuz!" said Luigi out loud. "I love you girls so much!"

"It's so wonderful! I really love all your songs!" said Peach.

"This is the greatest thing I've ever seen!" Toadsworth said out loud.

Franchouchou was glad that everyone enjoyed their performances. Some of them were so happy about the attention they were receiving that they almost cried. Waving her arm in the air, Saki said into her microphone, "Thank you! Thank you! We really appreciate the attention and rounds of applause you gave us! Thank you all for coming here to watch us perform!"

"Take off your makeups! I want to see you as who you girls really are!" shouted a random Toad from among the audience.

The idols were surprised to hear this, even more so when more and more people in the audience began chanting for them to remove their makeups.

"Remove your makeups! Remove your makeups! Remove your makeups!"

"Are... Are they serious?!" asked Ai in disbelief.

"Heck yeah! I've been waiting for this!" said Saki with excitement, and then she turned to her companions. "C'mon! Let's get rid of our masks! No more hiding behind them!" She then ran backstage, shortly followed by the others.

The audience became silent when they disappeared, and after about a minute, the idols came back onstage, this time without their makeups.

Gray skins, stitches, bandages, and all...

Those elements were in plain sight for all to see.

The audience went wild with excitement. The zombie idols watched with happiness and awe at the attention they were receiving for revealing their true forms to them. When they watched closely, they could actually see some of the Toads cosplaying as zombies.

"They really aren't afraid of us...!" said Ai in disbelief.

"Isn't that great? Not having to hide our appearances makes me feel like something heavy has been lifted from my chest!" said Yuugiri.

"We always went out with makeups, scared that people will find out what we are and what would happen as a result," said Junko, who was crying tears of happiness. "Yet here, the people are accepting us for what we are and happy about it!"

"Of course they would like us! Lily is the cutest zombie in the universe!" said Lily as she struck a cute pose.

"And hot as hell too!" added Saki.

The heavy burden of hiding their appearances... It was finally lifted off of their chests, and Franchouchou couldn't be any happier that the people were happy about what they are and not afraid at all.

But even so, the lingering feeling that would the people of their own world accept them for what they are remained. This acceptance was only in this current world, but would the reaction be the same back home?

For now, the zombies didn't want to think too much about it. Now, they just wanted to bathe in feeling of happiness, relief, and excitement they were getting from having their true forms exposed to the public.

It was the happy feeling they would always treasure in their hearts.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

I didn't really feel like posting the lyrics of the songs used in the show or describe their dance moves. If you've seen the show, then you know what to expect from those already. You can easily search up those songs and videos on YouTube. Sorry if you were expecting more, though...

Anyway, the new song the zombies have been practicing is Break Free from Mario Odyssey. Even though that song is sung by Pauline's voice actress, we never actually see Pauline sing that song. It simply plays during the escape sequence at the end of the game, so I think it's to say that canon-wise, Pauline doesn't sing it.

I wanted Franchouchou to sing a song related to the Mario series, and Break Free is really the only choice I can think of, as the others songs, including ones found in WarioWare games, have canonically be performed by its characters in some way. Because Break Free doesn't have an actual singer nor is it used in a realistic scenario (not sure how to put it in words...), I decided to go with that being Franchouchou's new song they were going to perform back in their world.


	27. Until We Meet Again, Mushroom Kingdom!

Why do I have the feeling that all the guest reviewers are actually the same person, as they all have more or less the same writing style and grammar...? Anyway, as long as I get multiple reviews, why should I complain?

 **Final Chapter  
Until We Meet Again, Mushroom Kingdom!**

* * *

A day later, after Franchouchou's performance, E. Gadd returned to Toad Town with good news. He was able to use a Starman as a power source to generate enough energy for the Golden Pipe in Toad Town to show up.

Several people were gathered at the place where the pipe was lasted spotted as E. Gadd placed a machine resembling a car engine with a glass dome above it containing a Starman and a pair of wires with metal rods at the end next to it.

Also, the zombies currently had their makeups on, because they had to walk out in the public after returning to Saga if they wanted to get back to their mansion, and people might see them.

"All right; I'm ready! Don't get too close," the professor told the others. He pressed a button on the engine, causing it to make a loud noise. A few seconds later, the Starman disintegrated, and the machine glowed with various colors. E. Gadd then plunged the metal rods into the ground, transferring energy into it.

Everyone watched with anticipation, wondering what would happen. Suddenly, a circular spot on the part of the ground the rods were inserted into began glowing. E. Gadd removed the rods and backed away as a Golden Pipe slowly emerged from the ground.

"Yes! It worked! The Golden Pipe appeared!" he happily said.

Seeing this, the zombies were overjoyed. "Finally! We can go back home!" said Sakura happily.

"Are you sure this will take us back to where we came from?" asked a skeptical Ai.

"It will, according to what I've read," E. Gadd told her. "The location the pipes lead to won't change. You can be sure it will take you back to your own world and in the exact same spot!"

"Well, I guess this is good-bye," Peach said to the zombies, who turned around to see her.

Bowing down, Junko said to her, "Thank for the hospitality you showed us while we were here. We can never repay you for the good you have done to us!"

"We should be the ones thanking you in helping save our town!" Peach said to her with a smile.

"I hope-a you have a safe trip home!" Mario said to them.

Sakura noticed that Lily had a sad look on his face. Before she could ask him what was wrong, the young zombie said, "Lily doesn't want to go back... This place is so fun... and the people here love us and accept that we are zombies without being afraid of us..."

Bending down next to him, Sakura said, "I understand your feeling, Lily, but it's not right for us to suddenly disappear from our own world without a word. There are still people back in our world waiting for us, and we can't abandon them just like that. I also like this world and am happy that the people accept us for what we are, but we really can't..."

"Don't worry; I will make sure that you can always come back to this world!" E. Gadd told them. "No matter how long it takes, I will see to it that the pipe that connects both our worlds will always remain, even after it disappears when you go back through it! You can trust me on this!"

"You better keep your promise, old man!" Saki said to him. Though that sounded like a threat, she was actually smiling when she said that. "We'll be coming back everyday to the same spot to see if the pipe is back! Don't you let us down!"

E. Gadd gave her a thumbs up. "You have my word!"

"I believe E. Gadd can definitely establish a permanent link between our worlds!" Mario told the zombies with confidence. "We will definitely meet-a again! I am sure of eet!"

"I look forward to our next meeting, whenever that may be!" said Yuugiri.

"By da way, are you going to reveal your identities as zombies when you get-a back?" Luigi asked the zombies.

The zombies had unsure looks on their faces when they heard this. "We're not sure..." replied Ai. "We'll have to ask our producer first... Our world doesn't have anything as strange as the ones here, so I'm not sure if the people back there can accept us being zombies..."

"We'll probably take a slower approach first and only reveal it when the time seems right," said Sakura. "They may be scared at first, but I believe that they will eventually accept us!"

"Indeed, there is no need to rush this," said Junko.

"Indeed, there eez no need to rush," agreed Mario. "I hope-a da people of your world will accept you once they know the truth one day!"

The Toads began saying good-bye to the zombies and hoping that they would meet again. Todd,the young Toad Junko rescued from drowning that time came up to the white-haired zombie and said to her, "Good-bye, big sis! I will wait for you to come back again, and when I grow up, I will marry you!"

Junko smiled and blushed as she petted his mushroom cap. "I'm so happy to hear that! I will be waiting for you to grow up!"

The Paratroopa Trio went up to Saki, and the leader said to her, "You've got guts and talents, zombie! You're one of the da best person I've ever met! Continue to keep up this attitude, and your name and face will reach across da world before you know it!" He then held up a fist to give her a bro fist.

Saki smiled as she gave him a bro fist as well. "You're equally awesome as well! Heck yeah!"

Lily went up to Peach and hugged her while crying. The princess smiled as she placed her hands around the young zombie's head. "Don't cry," she said to him. "We will definitely meet again! You should go back and say hello to the people you know first, or else they will be worried about your absence. You are welcome to come back here anytime!"

Toadsworth bent down in front of Romero and petted him, and the latter happily wagged his tail in response. "Be a good boy now!" Toadsworth said to him. "I will be missing you!" He then looked up and saw Tae looking at him. "And good-bye to you too, young lady. I hope you learn to behave yourself the next time we meet!" In response, Tae nodded.

Luigi shook Ai's hand and said to her, "Forgot to thank you for that-a time at da haunted house for capturing that ghost for me."

"It was nothing!" Ai told him with a smile.

Mario stretched out his hand to Sakura and said to her, "Well, I guess theez eez good-bye, at least for now."

"I'm sure we will meet again!" Sakura said to him as she shook his hand. "It was great meeting you all!"

"You girls are great singers and dancers!" Master Poet said to the zombies. "Your talents are truly out of this world! I would love to see you perform again someday!"

"I'm glad that you enjoyed our performances!" Yuugiri happily said to him.

After they were done saying good-bye, the zombies got in front of the Golden Pipe. E. Gadd said to them, "Energy will be used up when someone goes through it, and then the pipe will disappear. Rest assure I will continue to research it and make it appear again, and also make sure it doesn't disappear! I promised you girls that I would allow you to come back here, and I intend to keep that promise no matter what and no matter how long it takes!"

"We're looking forward to that!" Saki happily said to him.

The zombies then entered the pipe one by one, each of them saying good-bye one more time before disappearing into it. Even after all of them went into it, the pipe continued to remain in place. "Um... I thought the pipe would disappear?" asked a confused Luigi.

"It will only happen after they arrive at their world," E. Gadd told him.

* * *

The zombies found themselves sliding down the pipe, while all around them, a beautiful rainbow-colored background could be seen, just like when they first entered it. After sliding around for a while, they all shot out a horizontal pipe and piled up on top of each other.

"Get off me..." cried Ai, who was the first to enter the pipe and therefore at the bottom of the pile.

The zombies got off each other and looked around to find themselves in the sewer. "It's the same sewer we found the pipe!" pointed out Lily.

They then turned around to look at the pipe, just in time to see it disappearing into the wall, which let out a bright light as it did so. When the pipe disappeared into the wall, the light disappeared as well. They continued to stare at the wall for several seconds, and Junko said, "Do you think it will appear again?"

"It definitely will! That old man promised us, and I have complete faith in him, no matter how long it takes!" said Saki with confidence.

"All right, we should be getting back to our mansion," Ai told them. "Tatsumi must be having a panic attack over us being gone for so long already."

They nodded before rushing through the sewer passage and eventually making their way to the surface. It was still daytime when they got out, and fortunately, there wasn't much people around the place, so they rushed back to the mansion, which wasn't located too far away.

Upon entering their mansion, the first thing they did was look and see if Kotaro was at home. However, they didn't find him at all.

"No signs of shades at all," said Saki as stepped out of his room.

"He's not in any of the rooms!" said Lily, poking his head out of a nearby room.

They continued to look around the mansion, but ultimately didn't find him. "He's not home?" wondered Sakura.

"Even the van isn't home..." said Ai. "Has he not returned yet? Or did he go out?"

Just as they were wondering about this in the living room, they suddenly heard the door opening and closing. "I'm home!" cried out a male's voice.

The zombies rushed out to the hallway in surprise and saw their producer removing his shoes. He was carrying his luggage with him and had a depressed look on his face. "Tatsumi! You're back!" Sakura happily said to him.

"Sorry for being gone for so long..." said Kotaro in a depressed tone. "I was sick and hospitalized for a few days... Was discharged yesterday, though I still feel a bit under the weather..."

"No wonder you were gone for so long..." said Saki.

"So how did the reservation process go?" Ai asked him.

Kotaro shook his head. "Too bad... It was already full when I went there, so you zombies won't be performing at Tokyo."

Lily sounded disappointed when he heard this. "Awww... I was hoping to have a fun time there..."

"Anyway, I want to take a rest..." said Kotaro as he headed upstairs. "We can talk about this after I'm feeling better..."

After he left, the zombies talked with each other about this. "I guess it's fortunate that he was gone the entire time we were gone," said Junko.

"I think we should still tell him about this," suggested Sakura.

"I did bring back this souvenir, so it can be used as proof," said Yuugiri, holding up the box containing the Rosalina sculpture.

"And most importantly, we have this!" said Saki, pulling out a photo. Said photo showed them posing alongside Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Toadsworth in front of Peach's Castle. "There's no way he can not believe us after we've showed him this!"

The zombies agreed that as unbelievable as their tale seems, they should still tell Kotaro about this.

* * *

That night, when Kotaro woke up, the zombies told him everything and also showed him the picture and the sculpture as proof. The producer looked at both those things in silence for a while, and then he asked them, "So... did you girls have fun there?"

"We did!" replied Lily happily as he nodded.

"Do you believe our story?" Sakura asked him.

"It does sound unbelievable, but... if zombies like you exist, then I guess something like this might as well be real," he said.

"And we plan to go back there when we get the chance again!" said Saki. "Also, we were thinking of exposing ourselves as zombies to the people here! If the people there have no..."

Kotaro interrupted her. "Are you out of your mind?! I told you already that zombies like you shouldn't have a place in society, and the people will definitely blow you to pieces if they find out you're zombies!"

"Oh, you think so? Who says that this is definitely the case?" Saki said to him. "For all we know, there are zombie fanatics out there who are dying to see real zombies. If our fans are really dedicated to us, then they will definitely still like us! Frankly speaking, it's tiring always hiding behind makeups and keeping our true identities a secret from our friends and relatives."

"You know we can't keep up this facade forever," Ai said to Kotaro. "People are eventually going to find out that we don't age and therefore become suspicious."

"I told you already I have already planned out that," Kotaro told her. "Just wait until the time comes, and you will see what I have in store."

"And how many years is that going to take? I'd rather let the truth be spilled out now!" said Saki, sounding a bit frustrated.

"Lily isn't afraid to let people know I am a zombie anymore!" insisted Lily.

"Just let me think over this first, okay?" Kotaro said to them. "In the meantime, you lot get practicing for the performance I've decided to hold here next week. I told you that if we can't perform at Tokyo, we will do it here."

"Sure thing!" said Sakura with a nod.

"All right, get to sleep now. You must be tired from your ridiculously unbelievable adventure," Kotaro said to them while trying to get them out of his room.

The zombies left his room, and while out in the hallway, Saki said, "Well, that went easier than I expected..."

"I was expecting him to say that the photo is manipulated or something like that..." said Ai.

"He even took the sculpture quite well," added Yuugiri.

"So... do you think that after our performance next week, we should reveal the truth about ourselves to the public?" asked Junko, looking nervous.

"I totally don't mind that!" said Lily with enthusiasm. "Lily can finally be reunited with pappy for real if that is the case!"

"I think we should let Kotaro think over this first," said Ai.

The zombies returned to their room to get ready to turn in for the night. As they were doing so, Sakura thought about everything she heard. "Should we really do this? Reveal our secret to the public?" she wondered. "How will the people react? I want to be able to make myself known to my family, but... is it still too early? What should we do? What should we do...?"

* * *

One week later, Franchouchou performed at a small theater their latest song, Break Free, for the audience. Like all their previous performances, the audience loved it and gave them a large round of applause when they were finished. Majority of the audience consisted of their fans who attended their previous performances.

After the excitement died down, Sakura took the center of the stage and said to them, "Thank you very much for coming to our performance yet again! We are glad to have dedicated fans like you people!" After saying that, she turned to look at her companions behind them. The latter nodded, and then she nodded before turning back to the audience.

Sakura took a deep breath and then said, "There is something you all are probably wondering all this time. You've known us for quite a while already, but... do you really know anything about us? You don't know our backgrounds and not even our real names. Have you ever wondered about who we are?"

The audience, after hearing this, looked at each other in confusion, and some of them agreed with what she said. Indeed, even their most dedicated fans know nothing about their identities.

Sakura had a nervous look on her face, as did her companions, as she looked at the audience discussing this among themselves. Shen then continued speaking. "We actually wish to reveal who we are to you, but... due to certain circumstances, we wish to keep it a secret a bit longer. However, I can at least say that some of us might not actually be unfamiliar to you at all.

"I mean... maybe you've seen some of us before some time during your life. Maybe we were friends with you before we became idols! We could've been a part of your life and be very close to you in the past!"

When she said these, the audience became even more confused and talked among themselves about this.

Sakura continued. "I'm sure some of you might have theories about who we are, and maybe you are actually right about those! We would like to keep our true identities a secret a little longer, and I hope that if the day comes when we tell you who we really are, you will continue to love us and show us your supports. You are our beloved fans, so I'm sure you definitely will!"

The audiences were still confused, but nevertheless, there were some among the crowd who said things like they would definitely still support them, no matter who they actually are.

Sakura then thanked them for their support and also for enjoying the show. After that, the idols went backstage and into the dressing room.

Inside, the red-haired zombie said, "Phew... I was so scared saying all those..."

"What you said is probably for the best," Ai said to her.

"I think leaving them guessing it good enough for now," agreed Junko. "Maybe if they come to their own conclusions first, the impact and reaction won't be as... negative or something like that when the truth comes to light."

"Though I really don't mind if we just go ahead and tell them this now!" said Saki.

Kotaro then came up to them and said, "You lot are walking dangerously close to the edge, you know that?"

"Well, it was partly your idea in the first place," Ai reminded him. "Teasing them with a guessing game and all..."

Kotaro sighed and then asked, "Will you really be fine if your identities are exposed to them and they are afraid of what you are?"

 **Closing Theme  
** **Staff Roll (Super Mario 64)**

The zombies smiled, and Sakura said, "They will definitely still love us! We believe they definitely will!"

"That doesn't answer my question," said the producer.

"And we don't have to! We have that much confidence!" said Saki with a grin.

"Lily is the world's cutest zombie, so they will definitely still like me!" said Lily with a large smile.

"I was told that I am still beautiful, and if possible, I would like the people to agree with me as well!" said Junko with a blush.

"I do agree that for zombies, we are definitely attractive!" said Yuugiri.

"If things come down to this, I'll just have to accept it," said Ai.

Tae let out a cry while throwing her arms into the air, as if agreeing with everyone else.

"Well, that's something we can think about some other time," said Kotaro. "Anyway, go out there and give the audience an encore. I'm sure they want to hear your new song again, so c'mon! Go, go, go!"

The zombies nodded before rushing back on the stage to give the audience, who were cheering for them, another round of their new song.

* * *

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, E. Gadd was busy working in his lab, looking through manuscripts that talked about the Golden Pipe. He was also working on a machine that he hoped would make the pipe appear again, and this time not disappearing after going through it once.

Behind him, his Toad assistants were also doing research on this.

* * *

In Toad Town, many people were talking about the zombie idols. There were even merchandises with pictures of them printed on being sold already, such as t-shirts, cups, paper fans, etc.

Those items sold successfully and ran out of stock in a short period of time.

* * *

Peach was in her room, watching a recorded footage Franchouchou's performance on her computer. She greatly enjoyed it and told herself that she would love to watch them perform in person again.

* * *

Mario and Luigi were back home, enjoying a cup of coffee. The former was also reading a newspaper article that talked about Franchouchou's performance.

When he was done, he lifted his head to look at a portrait on the wall. It was a photo of him posing with the zombies and in fact the same picture they brought back with them to their world.

He smiled as he looked at the picture and wondered what they were doing now back in their own world. He also wished that he could meet them again.

* * *

Franchouchou continued to perform for the audience, amazing them with their brilliant singing and dance moves.

As the idols were doing so, they thought about the unbelievable adventures they had at the Mushroom Kingdom and wished that they would be able to visit it again. Despite having their minds busy with these thoughts, their performance wasn't hindered at all, and they continued to pull off highly skilled dance moves.

* * *

Back in their mansion, the aforementioned photo was given a frame and placed in the room the zombies slept in, and the Rosalina sculpture was placed on a table underneath the picture.

Whenever the zombies came to this room, they would look at it and smile as they remember the great times they spent in the Mushroom Kingdom.

It was an adventure they would never forget.

A world where they are accepted for what they are...

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 _THE END_

 **Theme Ends**

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On the day Franchouchou returned to their own world...

Bowser climbed out of a pool containing bubbling, purple liquid, dripping wet all over and with a grumpy look on his face. Kamek and Bowser Jr. were there to see him, both of them with happy looks on their faces.

"Papa! You're back in the flesh!" said the young turtle happily.

"How are you feeling, your evilness?" Kamek asked him. "They really did a number on you, so it took a couple of days to restore you."

"I feel terrible!" said Bowser while opening and closing his hand. "I can't believe I lost to a bunch of zombies I don't even know the name of! As if losing to an overweight plumber isn't enough! I'm going to get back at them if it's the last thing I do!"

"If that's the case, then I have good news for you!" Kamek told him. "The Koopalings are back, and they are excited to tell you what they discovered!"

Intrigued, Bowser headed to the throne room and summoned all seven Koopalings, Iggy, Morton, Lemmy, Ludwig, Roy, Wendy, and Larry, to his presence.

Seated on his throne, Bowser asked them, "So you're finally back. Tell me about what you found out."

"We heard that you lost to Mario again, and this time also a bunch of female zombies we have never heard before?" Iggy asked him.

"Just answer me!" said Bowser in frustration.

"You will be pleased to hear this, your highness," Ludwig said to him. "What we discovered will definitely help you defeat Mario and get your revenge on anyone who offended you! Furthermore, you can also take over the whole world with it!"

"There is only one problem, if you can even call it a problem," added Larry. "You will have to wait for about a month and a half before you can make use of it."

Bowser raised an eyebrow in interest. "What is it you lot found?" The Koopalings then told Bowser in detail about their discovery. After Bowser was done listening them, he smiled evilly and said, "Yes, that sounds just like what I want! Very well, I will wait until I can get my hands on that! Just you wait, Mario! Your days are finally numbered! Heheheheheh!

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 **Theme Playing:  
You Got a Multi-Moon! (Super Mario Odyssey)**

Sequel on the way!

Franchouchou will return to the Mushroom Kingdom!

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Yes, I have decided to make a sequel to this story! Were you sad that this story has finally come to an end? Well, you'll get see more of it in the near future!

Some elements you will be seeing in the sequel include Mario Odyssey, Mario Sunshine, WarioWare, and even Donkey Kong! As you can tell from the post-credit scene, the Koopalings will be involved in the sequel as well. And most importantly(?), Waluigi will appear too!

I don't know when I will get working on it, but I want to take my time to plan it out carefully first, lest it become another case of Justice of Two Worlds, where I constantly get writer's block due to not knowing what to do next. Speaking of which, I have to get back to working on that story after this and hopefully finish it in the shortest time possible.

At the time I am writing this, the ZLS event is still happening, and any news on a potential second season should happen before the end of this day. However, even if it doesn't get announced, I believe it will still be announced some time this year. That series is a huge success for its company, so there's no way it will be a one-time thing. Let's pray for the best!

So anyway, I had way too much fun working on this story. It totally brought me back to when I update my stories often years ago! Let's hope I can update my other stories equally fast!

I'll be getting back to Justice on Two Worlds after this. As for the ZLS reaction story, I will work on that too, but it won't be a serious story and will only be updated when I feel like it, so that is not a priority. As for my next Smash Bros. story, that is something I would like to take time to work on too, and I will give you an update of it in the future.

Thank you to everyone who stuck with this story to the end! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think about the story from beginning to end!

I hope to see you all again when the sequel is finally posted!

God bless you all!

And one last thing, the Mario 64 credits theme is beautiful!


End file.
